POEZANA PUSCA. 771 



Jerdon observes that it frequents " thick swamps, marshes, and the like ; and it appears from the following 

 account by Mr. Oates to be quite at home amongst floating vegetation. Of the pair he procured in Pegu 

 he writes as follows : — " 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 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 in the grass." 



Nidification. — This species breeds in Lower Bengal ; and in Cashmir, as I have already observed, it has 

 likewise been found nesting. Mr. Hume fouud it breeding in Lower and Eastern Bengal from July to 

 September, " making a nest of weeds and grass, reeds, or rush, just like Baillon's Crake, and in precisely 

 similar situations, but somewhat larger and more substantial." The number of eggs, according to this author, 

 varies from 3 to 5 ; and they are moderately broad ovals, somewhat pointed at the small end, and the shell 

 with little or no gloss. They are of a " pinky or creamy white, more or less streaked, spotted, and blotched 

 with brownish red or reddish brown," with a number of pale inky-purple spots intermingled with the red 

 markings at the large end. They vary from 1"16 to l - 27inch in length by from 08 to - 89 in breadth. 



I have examined two eggs taken near Chilaw by the taxidermist of the Colombo Museum, and said to 

 have been found in a nest "built on the ground at the edge of a paddy-field " {MacVicar) . They somewhat 

 resemble the eggs of this species, but are rather small, measuring only 1'08 by 086 inch and 1"12 by 0'83 inch ; 

 they are creamy white, spotted all over, but mostly at the large end, with reddish brown. It is very improbable 

 that this race has bred in Ceylon; but it is difficult to assign these eggs to any other species. 



Subgenus EALLINA. 

 Bill stouter than in the last, the wing more graduated, with the 4th quill the longest. Tail 

 shorter, and the toes stouter, more scaled, and shorter than in Porzana ; claws short. Plumage 

 banded beneath. 



5g 



