PARRIN.E. 363 



Parra indica, Lath. 



900. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 708 ; Butler, Guzerat ; f] f 

 Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 19 ; Deccan, Stray Feathers, _.. t' 1 

 Vol. IX, p. 430 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, V 

 1885, p. 134. 



THE BRONZE-WINGED JACANA. 



Length, <j, 10, ?, 12 ; expanse, <?, 20'5, ?, 24 ; wing, <j, 6, 



?, 7'5 ; tail, <?, 1'6, ?, 175 ; tarsus, g, 2'4, ?, 3; bill, <?, 1'12, 



? . 1'25 ; middle-toe, $ , 3'6, 9,4; hind-toe, <j , 3'25 ; claw alone, 2'5. 



Bill greenish-yellow, tinged red at base ; frontal lappet livid ; 



irides brown ; legs dull green. 



Head, neck, and all the under parts rich dark green, glossed on 

 the head, neck, and breast, and with purple reflections on the 

 back of the neck and upper back ; a broad white supercilium 

 beginning just over the eye ; interscapulars, wing-coverts, (except 

 the primary), scapulars, and tertiaries, pale shining bronze ; the 

 lower back maroon, with a beautiful purple gloss ; tail dark 

 cinereous, the lateral feathers bordered with black, tipped white, 

 and with a white shaft ; primary-coverts and quills black, faintly 

 glossed with green; lower abdomen and thigh-coverts dull 

 blackish-green ; under tail-coverts deep chesnut. 



The joung bird has the crownche-snut, withji pale eyebrow ; 

 the^kce white ; back of the head~and"hmd neck purple, with a 

 lake and coppery gloss ; the back cupreous olive -green ; the 

 upper tail-coverts and tail dull coppery ; quills and primary- 

 coverts black ; tertials as the back, partly edged with white ; 

 throat white ; neck and breast pale buff with a median white 

 stripe, and the belly white^with the flanks blackish ; thigh-coverts 

 mixed black and whiteT 



Bill yellowish-green, darker on the upper mandible ; the front 

 lappet is also wanting. 



With the exception of Sind, the Bronze-winged Jacana occurs 

 in suitable localities throughout our limits, but is nowhere com- 

 mon ; in fact it is only found on the larger reed-grown tanks, and 

 never on rivers or the smaller tanks, which are generally free 

 from weeds. It is a permanent resident, breeding at the com- 

 mencement of the rains, or about July. 



The nest is composed of rushes and weeds, and is a rather 

 large circular pad, with a depression in the centre ; it is placed 

 generally on a bed of lotus leaves, surrounded more or less by 

 rushes. The eggs, four in number, are moderately broad ovals, a 

 good deal pointed at one end ; they are highly glossy, of a rich 

 warm stone or cafe-au-lait color, the whole surface of the egg 

 being covered with a mass of finer or coarser brownish-black or 

 almost black lines, intermingled and entangled in inextricable 

 confusion ; sometimes these markings are paled down here and 

 there to a rich red brown, with an occasional large spot or blotch 

 of the same color as the markings. 



