FARRIN.3S. 709 



The young bird (and I believe also the adult in winter plumage) 

 has the crown chesnut, with a pale eyebrow ; the face white ; 

 back of the head and hind neck purple, with a lake and coppery 

 gloss ; the back cupreous olive green ; the upper tail-coverts and 

 tail dull coppery ; quills and primary coverts black ; tertials as the 

 back, partly edged with white ; throat white ; neck and breast 

 pale buff with a median white stripe, and the belly white with the 

 flanks blackish ; thigh-coverts mixed black and white. 



Bill yellowish green, darker on the upper mandible, the front 

 lappet is also wanting, and this appears to be developed at the 

 breeding season only. 



Blyth states that this species does not moult in spring, hut my 

 observations tend to show that it has a double moult, although a 

 few birds appear to retain their breeding dress throughout the year. 



This handsome Jacana is found throughout India, in jheels, 

 marshes, and weedy tanks, running with great ease over the 

 floating grass and vegetation. It has a harsh loud cry, and it breeds 

 during the rains, making a floating nest of weeds in some sheltered 

 part of a jheel, and laying several eggs dark olive-brown, lined 

 and streaked with black. It feeds chiefly on vegetable matter, 

 seeds and roots, or the bulbs of some floating plants, also partially on 

 insects. It extends over Burmah and many of the Malayan isles. 



Other species of Metopidius are found in Africa. 



Gen. Hydrophasianus, Waaler. 

 Char. — Bill more slender than in Metopidius, forehead without 

 a lappet ; tail very long, the four central feathers especially 

 greatly lengthened at the breeding season: wings long, with the 

 1st and 2nd quills equal, and longer than the 3rd ; the 1st and 4th 

 primaries with a lancet shaped portion of web, as it were, appended 

 to the tip ; hind claw not so long as in Metopidius, otherwise 

 similar to that genus. Peculiar to South Eastern Asia. 



901. Hydrophasianus chirurgus, Scopoli. 



Tringa, apud Scopoli — Parra sinensis, Gmelin — Bly/th, Cat. 

 1614 -Jerdon, Cat, 327— Sykes Cat. 201— Gould, Cent. 

 Him. Birds, pi. 77— Hardwicke, 111. Ind. Zool. 2, pi. 55— 

 Gould, Birds of Asia, pt. VII, pi. 3 — Pilw, or Pihuya, H — 



