170 Mr. Gordon Dalgliesh,


specimens from the same district. It is said to have a loud

booming cry uttered in the breeding season. It is kept by many

natives for fighting purposes. Its food appears to be chiefly

vegetable. It breeds in July and August, making a large nest of

rushes either moored to reeds or else floating, and the eggs are of

the regular Moorhen type and measure, according to Blanford,

about 17 by 1*27. The horn in the male appears only to be

assumed in the breeding season.


5. Porphyrio poliocephalus, Lath. The Purple Moorhen.

The Purple Coot (Jerdon). " Blue fowl " of Bengal sportsmen.


This fine bird is found throughout the Indian plains where-

-ever there are large sheets of water, and among rice fields, and in

certain localities abounds, only being outnumbered by Coots.

Mr. C. M. Inglis says that at Baghownie in the Darbhanga dis-

trict of Tirhoot, Bengal, they are so abundant as to cause con-

siderable damage to the rice crops as they cut down the plant

wholesale with their powerful bill and pile it up to form their

nests. Large as the bird is it is not often seen, being exceedingly

wary, but its deep cry of "woo — ong " is frequently heard,

especially towards evening and in the breeding season. The best

way to obtain "Blue fowl" is to drive them out of their reedy

cover by means of two or three boats in line. They fly low over

the water with a somewhat weak flight and can then be easily

dropped. A wounded bird is seldom recovered as they are ex-

cellent divers. I have always found them good eating, and they

make delicious soup. The breeding season is from July to Sep-

tember, and the eggs vary from six to eight and sometimes ten,

and are a pale pink spotted with red and purplish grey.


6. Fulica atra. L,. The Coot.

The well known Coot occurs in countless numbers on all

Indian marshes, ox J heels as they are called, and lakes. In some

places it is resident, but only a cold weather visitor to others. A

favourite shooting ground of mine was a large Jheel situated close

to the Tirhoot State Railway in Bengal. Standing on the road

alongside ihef/iee/, at sunset, one heard the whistle and rush of

many wings caused by huge flocks of waterfowl which came there

to feed. The commonest bird was the Coot which simply swarmed

in thousands. On a bitterly cold morning in December, about 4



