188 A FIRST LIST OF THE 



911.— Eallina fusca, Lin. 



This species is probably not uncommon. Mr. Oates recently 

 secured a pair. He says : " I have watched these birds for a 

 long time. Close to my house there is a nasty, dirty swamp 

 overrun with reeds. Just at its tail end, about fifty yards from 

 my verandah, there is a small, comparatively clear, piece of 

 water. Upon this piece of water these two little birds were 

 to be seen every morning walking about briskly over the Lilies ; 

 but whenever I attempted to get near them, they would stalk 

 away into the grass. At last I managed one fine morning to 

 get the male, and nearly a fortnight after the female. They 

 are evidently a pair. 



" The male measured : Length, 8*55 ; expanse, 12 "2 ; tail, from 

 vent, 1*75 ; wing, 3'8 ; bill, from gape, 1*0 ; tarsus, l - 4. 



" The female : Length, 7*8 ; expanse, 12 ; tail, from vent, 1*7 ; 

 wing, 375 j bill, from gape, 0'98; tarsus, 1*46. 



" The stomachs contained small insects, and much gravel and 

 sand. In both sexes, iris, crimson ; eyelids, plumbeous ; the edges, 

 coral red. Inside of mouth was flesh color ; bill, greenish brown ; 

 legs and toes, red ; the hind part of tibia and knee, fuscous. Shot 

 at Boulay on the 21st September 1873.-" 



These birds are precisely identical with others from Ceylon, 

 Calcutta, and various parts of Northern India. 



Dr. Jerdon says that the legs and feet of this species are 

 pale green ; I cannot say that I have ever seen a specimen with 

 the legs this color. The bird is comparatively very rare in Upper 

 India, so that I have not seen many fresh specimens ; but all I 

 have seen had the legs red or reddish. Perhaps in mid-winter 

 the legs are green. I hope that some one in Lower Bengal, where 

 the bird is pretty plentiful, will ascertain whether this be so 

 or not; (see also Stray Feathers, Vol. II, p. 461). 



912.— Porzana ceylonica, Gm. 



A specimen from Thayetmyo is precisely identical with others 

 from Ceylon, Cawnpore, and other parts of Upper India. As I 

 pointed out (Stray Feathers, 1873, page 440), Blyth's species, 

 amauroptera, will not stand ; it is merely the female of the present 

 species. I have both supposed species, both from Ceylon and from 

 Upper India ; in all cases the so-called amauroptera were females. 



Mr. Oates says : " I have only obtained one specimen, which 

 was caught alive in the verandah of the house of Colonel Horace 

 Browne, Deputy Commissioner of Thayetmyo, who kindly sent 

 it to me." 



Fasciata, Raffles, which is so common in Malacca, Penang, and 

 Singapore collections, and which we have from Amherst, though 

 rather similar, is a smaller bird, has the olive of the back much 



