THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 927 



built. Another favourite place is the short, dark green rushy grass 

 that grows by the side of tanks and in swampy ground. This 

 perhaps is the most favourite place of all, and in many of the nests 

 found in this situations, the blades of grass were drawn together 

 over the top of the nest, so as to form a sort of canopy as in some 

 nests of Porzana akool. Another favourite spot is a rice field which 

 has been ploughed up and left unplanted for some time until the 

 grass begins to grow over it." 



It does not always wait, however, ever until the grass has begun 

 to grow, for during three seasons Mr. H. A. Hole found nests placed 

 in fields which had been so recently ploughed that there was prac- 

 tically no growth on them and the nest had been placed merely 

 under the shelter of a clod of earth larger than the average. Two 

 or three such nests were shewn to me by him and others I myself 

 found when staying with him. Some nests, the majority perhaps, 

 were placed in the jungle which covered the sides of the ditches, 

 but a very large number were taken from the bare fields well away 

 from the sides. A very curious fact we noticed here was that we 

 repeatedly came across single eggs dropped casually hj the hen 

 bird on the ground with no sign of a nest and, apparently, with no 

 thought for its incubation. 



The nest itself is a fairly compact pad of grass, straw, rushes or 

 weeds, measuring about 6" across and from one to three inches in 

 depth. When placed in a deeper hollow than usual the nest may 

 be almost cup-shaped, but as a rule is merely a flat pad which has 

 a depression less than an inch in depth. It is nearly always placed 

 actually on the ground but occasionally a few inches off it in a tuft 

 of grass thicker than usual, even more rarely, it may be found 

 placed on a tangle in a cane brake just above the water or mud. 

 Nearly always a wet situation is chosen or one just close to mud 

 and water, but this is not invariably so and, as already narrated, I 

 have taken nests from quite dry fields some distance from any 

 water or wet ground. So also, though most nests are fairly well 

 concealed by cover of some sort, others are placed conspicuously 

 in the open or in stunted grass or stubble in positions in which it 

 seems impossible they should escape the unwelcome attentions of 

 vermin, winged or otherwise. 



