218 PAREID-E. 



Genus METOPIDIUS, Wagler, 1832. 



Head small ; bill moderately long, straight, compressed, culrnen 

 curved at the tip ; a lappet at the base of the bill, resting against 

 the forehead and rounded behind ; tail short ; wing with a small 

 tubercular spur at the bend ; 1st and 2nd quills longest ; middle toe 

 without the claw longer than tarsus, hind claw excessively long ; 

 tarsus transversely shielded before and behind. 



There is no distinct breeding-plumage, but the garb of the 

 young differs widely from that of the adult, which appears to be 

 assumed by a moult in the spring when the bird is a year (or 

 according to some two years) old. 



A single species. Many naturalists place the African and 

 Madagascar Jaganas in the same genus as the Indian, and it is ex- 

 tremely questionable whether either the Ethiopian or the South- 

 American forms (Parr a jacana and its allies) are entitled to generic 

 separation, their differences being of a trivial character. 



1428. Metopidius indicus. The Bronze-winged Jacana. 



Parra indica, Lath. 2nd. Orn. ii, p. 765 (1790) ; Hume # Dav. S. F. 

 vi, p. 464 ; Ball, S. F. vii, p. 2:29 ; Cripps, ibid. p. 304 : Hume, Cat. 

 no. 900 ; Bingham, S. F. ix, p. 197 ; Butler, ibid. p. 430 : Reid, 

 S. F. x, p. 72 ; Davison, ibid. p. 415 ; Maccjregor, ibid. p. 441 ; Hume, 

 S. F. xi, p. 326 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. p. 363 ; id. Jour. Bom. A. 

 H. Soc. i, p. 221, vi, p. 133, fig. 900 (eggs, 2 figs.). 



Metopidius indicus, Blyth, Cat. p. 273 ; Jerdon. B. I. iii, p. 708 ; 

 Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 170 ; Hume fy Gates, S. F. iii, p. 183 ; Bhfth 

 $ Wald. Birds Burnt, p. 157 ; Butler, S. F. iv, p. 19 ; Armstrong, 

 ibid. p. 348 ; Anderson, Yunnan Exped., Aves, p. 683 ; Gates, B. B. 

 ii, p. 358 ; id. in Hume's N. $ E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 356 ; Sharpe, Cat. 

 B. M. xxiv, p. 72. 



Dal-pipi, Jal-pipi, Karatiya, Beng. ; Kattoi, Purneah ; Bi, Burmese. 



Coloration. In adults the head, neck, and lower parts to the 

 abdomen, including the wing-lining, are black glossed with dark 

 green, the lower hind neck with a purple gloss ; superciliary band 



Fig. 49. Foot of M. indicus. 



commencing above the eye and running back to the nape, with a 

 spot beneath the eye, white ; back, scapulars, tertiaries, and wing- 

 coverts olive-bronze ; primary-coverts and primary and secondary 

 quills black, glossed with dark green ; lower back, rump, and 

 upper tail-coverts dark chestnut ; tail and under tail-coverts 

 brighter chestnut ; lower abdomen and thigh-coverts dull blackish 

 brown. 



