710 BIRDS OF INDIA. 



Dal-kukra, also Dal-pipi, Jal-manjor, and Chitt.ra billai, in Bengal 

 and Behar — Surdal or Sukdal, in some parts, also Miwa. 



The Pheasant-tailed Jacana. 



Descr. — In summer plumage, the forehead, top of the head, 

 face, chin, throat, and neck white, a broad black mark on the top 

 of the head ; hind neck pale shining yellow, edged by a dark l^ne ; 

 upper plumage, including the scapulars and tertiaries, shining dark 

 olive brown with purple reflections ; wings with the coverts white, 

 1st primary black, the 2nd nearly so, and the 3rd black on the 

 outer web and a broad tip, the rest white, all tipped with black, as 

 are the greater wing-coverts ; upper tail-coverts bronzed black, tail 

 black : beneath, from the breast, deep brownish black, dull on the 

 thigh-coverts ; the under tail-coverts deep chesnut. 



Bill pale leaden blue at the base, greenish at the tip ; irides 

 dark brown ; legs pale bluish green. Male, length 18 inches ; 

 extent 24 ; wing 8 ; tail 10 ; tarsus 2|- ; bill at front 1^ ; middle 

 toe 3 ; hind toe and claw 2, of which the claw is 1£. The 

 female is a larger bird. One measured above 20 inches ; extent 

 30 ; wing 9h ; tail 11 ; tarsus 2f ; middle toe and claw 3^ ; bill at 

 front li. 



The primaries from the 4th are all much pointed, and the tip 

 of the 1st and 4th have a narrow appendage of web, as it were 

 fixed on to the point. 



In winter plumage, the upper parts, including the lesser wing- 

 coverts and tertiaries, are pale hair brown, the former more or less 

 barred with white, and the greater coverts pure white ; the top 

 of the head and back of the neck brown with a white super- 

 cilium, and the feathers of the forehead white-spotted ; a pale 

 golden yellow line from behind the eye, down the sides of the 

 neck bordered by a black line from the gape, which crosses the 

 lower part of the breast forming a more or less broad pectoral 

 gorget, 1st primary (only) with an appendage, 4th attenuated and 

 prolonged ; tail with the central feathers as the back, pale brown, 

 slightly lengthened. 



Length 12 to 13 inches ; wing 8 to end of second primary ; tail 3 

 to 4. In young birds the superciliary line is ferruginous, passing 



