336 LIST OF BIRDS IN MANIPUR, 



This species appears to be very common all over the less 

 elevated portions of Assam, Sylhet, and Cachar. I have had 

 it sent from almost every district and from too many localities 

 to recapitulate. 



[Very common in suitable localities all over the district of 

 Dibrugarh. On the 9th June I got a clutch of five hard 

 set eggs amongst some rush in a damp " pathar." The nest 

 was a thin pad of grasses, and wet with water, on which it was 

 floating. On the 4th July I got another clutch of four very 

 slightly incubated eggs, snaring the male on the nest. On the 

 same day, and near the last nest, I found another with four 

 young about ten days old. These birds feed on fish and earth- 

 worms. — J. R. C] 



This too is generally distributed throughout British Burmah 

 wherever streams or j heels are bordered by dense cover of rush 

 and reed or brushwood, but I fancy it is very rare in the 

 northern half of Tenasserim east of the Salween. 



934.— Ardetta sinensis, Gm. 



I only saw one single specimen of this near Sagam in the 

 extreme south of the basin ; but this is a species which 

 haunts rice fields by preference, and which, when this has all 

 been cut, retires to the densest and most secluded cover. I 

 dare say had I waited until the rice was again well up, I 

 should have seen plenty of them. 



I have received this from near Shillong and from N.-E. 

 Cachar, and Godwin- Austen seems to have procured it some- 

 where in Sylhet, but this is all I know of its distribution in 

 Assam, Sylhet and Cachar. 



[This skulk is occasionally flushed in the cold weather in 

 Dibrugarh when beating for large game among the swamps 

 that are overgrown with long elephant grass. They are, 

 however, rarer than the last species. — J. R, C] 



This too I believe to be generally distributed all over 

 British Burmah, in all localities where any considerable 

 amount of rice is grown, and even where there is little cultivat- 

 ed rice, where stretches of fine grass or wild rice swamp occurs, 

 but it is a bird that is seldom seen unless carefully hunted 

 for. 



9366is.— Goisakius melanolophus, Raffl. 



Although I obtained no specimen of this species I can 

 certainly include it in our list. As with another canoe about 

 40 yards distant I was pushing through a tangled mass of 



