EALLINA EUKYZONOIDES. 



(BROWN'S RAIL*.) 



Gallinula eurizonoides, Lafresn. Eev. Zool. 1845, p. 368. 



Porzana ceylonica, Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 285 (1849, nee Gm.) ; Layard, Ann. & 



Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 267; Jcrdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 725 (1864); Hume, Str. 



Feath. 1873, p. 440, et 1875, p. 188 ; Bourdillon & Hume, ibid. 1876, p. 405 ; Hume, 



ibid. 1878, vii. p. 465. 

 Corethrura zeylanica (Brown), apud Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. p. 135 (1852). 

 Porzana zeylanica, Blyth, Ibis, 1867. pp. 171, 309 (nee Gm.). 

 Ballina euryzonoides (Lair.), Gray, Hand-1. B. iii. p. 58 (1871); Tweeddale, P. Z. S. 1877, 



p. 767 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1879 (List Ind. Birds), p. 113. 

 Ballina ceylonica, Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 476 (nee Gm.). 

 The Bail, Brown, Illustr. pi. 37 ; The Ceylon Bail, Kelaart, I. c. ; The Banded Bail, Jerdon ; 



The Chestnut-headed Bail, The Ferruiji nous-breasted Bail, of some. Nordewind, Dutch 



in Ceylon (Layard) ; Neer kuruvi, Tamils (Mac Vicar). 



Adult male ami female. Length 9-5 to 1O0 inches ; wing 4-7 to 5-0 ; tail 2-2 ; tarsus 1*6 to 1*75 ; middle toe and 



claw l - 45 to 1*55 : hind toe and claw - 55 ; bill to gape 1*2 to 1-25. 

 Iris mottled closely on the exterior portion with red-brown on an olive ground (after death the red-brown intensifies 



and spreads over the iris) ; bill dark brown, sides of lower mandible green ; legs and feet plumbeous or plumbeous 



brown. 



Male. Head, upper part of hind neck, its sides, fore neck, and chest fine ferruginous chestnut, enclosing a white 

 chin and throat of more or less extent; lower part of hind neck, upper surface, and wings uniform brownish 

 olive, brown on the inner webs of the quills, which are barred at the margin, near the base, with white ; wing- 

 coverts faintly tinged with rusty brown : breast, lower parts, under tail-coverts, thighs, and under wing-coverts 

 blackish brown, broadly banded with white, which overcomes the ground-colour on the abdomen, this part being, 

 in some, almost white. Soine specimens have the occiput tinged with brown. 



Female. Has the hind neck, occiput, and hind part of the crown brown, like the back ; the forehead and front of 

 crown chestnut-red, the colour passing over the eye and covering the face and ear-coverts, whence it passes 

 over the sides of the neck to the chest; the lores are shaded with brown; the extent of the white on the throat 

 is, 1 think, as a rule, greater in this sex than in the other. The barring of the underparts presents no constant 

 difference to that in the male. 



Young(l). Birds which I conclude are immature have the face and ear-coverts olive-brown, tinged with chestmnVred, 

 the sides of the neck brown, and only the forehead chestnut ; the red of the chest is of small extent and is 

 sullied with brown. 



Obs. Mr. Hume has shown, in his remarks on this species in 'Stray Feathers," that Blyth's species, B. amauroptera, 

 " distinguished by having less rufous on the nape,"' is only the female of this bird. Blyth described his species 

 from Northern-Indian specimens, and arrived at the conclusion that it constituted a race from that part of the 

 country. Some examples of the present Rail are said to have the smaller scapulars banded with white, like the 

 allied species 11. fasciata, to be presently noticed ; but I have seen no Ceylonese skins exhibiting the slightest 

 trace of this character. 



is There are two other species of this little group, more banded than the present ; I therefore discard the usual title 

 Banded Rail " and adopt the more suitable one, after its first describer, Brown. 



