GALLINULINJE. 367 



edge, and occasionally they are more or less floating. The 

 eggs, seven to ten in number, are broadish ovals, slightly com- 

 pressed towards one end ; they have no gloss and are of a pale 

 buffy-stone- color, closely and evenly stippled with black or 

 blackish-brown specks with an occasional spot of somewhat 

 larger size scattered sparingly about the surface. 

 The eggs average T98 in length by 1'4 in breadth. 



GENUS, Gallicrex, Blyth. 



Bill much as in Gallinula, but with the base (in the male) 

 prolonged over the forehead and rising into a fleshy carbuncle 

 or horn on the top of the head, which is only developed at 

 the time of breeding ; feet large ; hind-toe with the claw short, 

 more curved than the others ; otherwise as in Gallinula. 



Gallicrex cinereus, Gm. 



904. G. cristatus, Latham. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II. 

 p. 716; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 261. 



THE WATER- COCK. 



(J. Length, 16 to 17 ; expanse, 23 ; wing, 8'5 ; tail, 3'5 ; tar- 

 sus, 3 ; bill from gape ; 1 "23. 



? . Length, 14 ; expanse, 22 ; wing, 7 ; tail, 2 '5 ; tarsus 2'5 ; 

 bill from gape, T25. 



Bill greenish-yellow, red at the base; irides, <J, red, $ brown; 

 legs, $ , dull red, ? , dull green. 



Male in breeding plumage dull black ; the feathers of the back, 

 wing-coverts, rump, and upper tail- coverts, more or less edged 

 with pale brown ; tertials dark-brown, edged with pale whity- 

 brown ; edge of the wing white ; quills dusky, the shaft of the 

 first quill thick, white ; tail blackish-brown, the outer feathers 

 edged pale brown ; lower wing-coverts dusky, with whitish 

 edges. 



The female has the crown of the head and a pale streak 

 over the eye unspotted brown ; the rest of the body above 

 dark brown; all the feathers edged with pale fulvous, most 

 broadly so on the back, scapulars, and wing- coverts ; edge of 

 the wing and outer web of first quill white ; quills dusky- 

 brown ; lores, cheeks, and sides of neck fulvous-brown ; the 

 chin and throat whitish ; the rest of the lower part brownish- 

 fulvous ; the feathers barred transversely with brown, darkest 

 on the flanks, outer thigh-coverts, and under tail-coverts, and 

 whitish on the belly ; wings beneath dark cinereous. 



Within our limits the Kora or Water-Cock has only been; 

 recorded from Sind. 



GENUS, Gallinula, Brisson. 



Bill moderate, compressed, rather thick at the base, slightly 

 curved at tip, expanding into a small shield on the forehead ; 



