364 PARKING. 



They measure 1*47 inches in length by about T03 in breadth. 



GENUS, Hydrophasianus, Wag. 



Bill more slender than in Metopodius ; forehead without a 

 lappet ; tail very long, the four central feathers especially greatly 

 lengthened at the breeding season ; wings long, with the first and 

 second quills equal, and longer than the third ; first and fourth 

 primaries with a lancet-shaped portion of web, as it were, appended 

 to the tip ; hind-claw not so long as in Metopodius, otherwise 

 similar to that genus. 



Hydrophasianus chirurgus, Scop. 



901. Jerdon'sTTCrds of India, Vol. II, p. 709 ; Butler, Guzerat ; 



Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 20; Deccan, Stray Feathers, 



Vol. IX, p. 431 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 258 ; 



Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 1885, p. 134. 

 THE PHEASANT-TAILED JACANA. 



Length, <j, 18, ?,20; expanse, $, 24, ?, 30; wing, <?, 8, 

 $,9'5; tail, <?, 10, ? , 11 ; tarsus, j, 212, ?, 2'4 ; bill at front, 

 <?, 112, '?, 1-25. 



Bill pale leaden-blue, greenish at tip ; irides dark brown ; legs 

 pale bluish-green. 



In summer plumage, the forehead, top of the head, face, chin, 

 throat, and neck white, a broad black mark on the top of the 

 head ; hind neck pale shining yellow, edged by a dark line ; 

 upper plumage, including the scapulars and tertiaries, shining 

 dark olive-brown with purple reflections ; wings with the coverts 

 white, first primary black, the second nearly so, and the third 

 black on the outer webs and a broad tip ; the rest white, all tipped 

 with black, as are the greater wing-coverts ; upper tail-coverts 

 bronzed-black ; tail black ; beneath from the breast deep brown- 

 ish-black, dull on the thigh-coverts ; the under tail-coverts deep 

 chesnut. 



In winter plumage, the upper parts, including the lesser wing- 

 coverts and tertiaries, are pale hair-brown, the former more or less 

 barred with white, and the greater-coverts pure white ; the top 

 of the head and back of the neck brown, with a white superci- 

 lium, and the feathers of the forehead white spotted ; a pale 

 golden-yellow line from behind the eye down the sides of the 

 neck, bordered by the black line from the gape, which crosses the 

 lower part of the breast, forming a more or less broad pectoral 

 gorget ; first primary (only) with an appendage, fourth attenuated 

 and prolonged ; tail with the central feathers as the back, pale 

 brown, slightly lengthened. 



Length, 12 to 13 ; tail, 3 to 4. 



In young birds the superciliary line is ferruginous, passing into 

 a less marked yellow neck-stripe, and the brown band is also 

 less distinct. 



