THE WATERHENS. 175 



to get their offspring down somehow from this perilous 

 height. I was unfortunately absent when the feat 

 was accomplished, but a malee assured me that he saw 

 the old birds bringing the young ones down in their 

 beaks. The White-breasted Waterhen, like the rest 

 of its tribe, trusts more to its legs than its wings, but 

 it will fly sometimes for a short distance, its legs 

 hanging down like tasselled cords. 



Among other species of Waterhens I think the 

 Pigmy Rail (Porzana pygmaed) is the one most like- 

 ly to be met with in Bombay. It is a dainty little bird 

 about the size of a Quail, though very different in 

 shape. The upper parts are olive brown, spotted 

 with white and black, while the breast, throat and 

 underparts are bluish grey. The bill is green. I 

 believe I have seen this bird in one of the cages of a 

 strolling bird-seller, but that was many years ago. 



The Coot must come in here, as I am following 

 Jerdon, though for the purposes of these papers I 

 would rather leave it till we come to the wild ducks, 

 with which it is much more likely to be confounded. 

 Many a Coot is not only shot, but eaten, for a duck 

 by sportsmen of the class that shoot Snippets for 

 Snipe. It is not a Duck, however. Its bill is not the 

 flat bill of a Duck and, ergo, its diet is not the same, 

 nor its flavour ; nor are its feet webbed like a Duck's, 

 but each separate toe is furnished with a curious fringe 

 of webbing. It is, in fact, a Waterhen which, being 

 specially equipped for swimming, does not live about 

 water but in it. Its favourite haunts are large tanks, 

 or sheets of water, with reedy and weedy margins. 

 Swimming about among these it looks very like a 

 Duck and at a distance may be mistaken by anybody; 



