774 EALLINA EURYZONOIDES. 



Nuwara Eliya. So far as I have been able to ascertain, it is seldom seen after February on the hills, and it 

 leaves the island much rnore unobserved than it came. It does not seem to be common in the Galle district 

 during the season of its arrival. 



From the writings of Indian naturalists we are able to gather but little concerning either the distribution 

 or the habits of the " Banded Rail." Jerdon compares its range to that of the last species j but it would 

 appear to be a much rarer bird, and is probably migratory to the south. In this locality I see nothing 

 recorded of its occurrence, save in a remark by Mr. Bourdillon concerning a specimen which was procured 

 by a Mr. Ferguson at the foot of the Travancore hills. It would appear to be common in Upper India ; but 

 even in that region few naturalists seem to have observed it. In the North-west it is apparently unknown ; 

 and even from Mr. Ball's exhaustive list of the birds of the eastern district of the Peninsula it is wanting. 

 Mr. Hume speaks of it as occurring at Cawnpore " and other places in Upper India ;" but he does not seem to 

 have noticed it, even rarely, in the Calcutta Bazaar, where in the cold season all the other Indian members 

 of the family are occasionally to be met with. It occurs in Pegu. Mr. Oates records the capture of a 

 specimen in the verandah of the Deputy Commissioner of Thayetmyo. In Tenasscrim it is replaced by 

 R. fasciata. 



There is but little to record concerning the habits of this Rail besides its singular propensity, already 

 noticed, for concealing itself in houses and buildings. Layard writes of it: — " I found one in the well of my 

 carriage, another in the folds of the gig-apron, and a third in a shoe under my bed I" The individual which 

 I discovered in the buildings, above alluded to, when I approached it ran slowly along by the walls and among 

 the joists of the flooring, with its neck stretched out Rail-fashion, and did not appear very anxious to escape. 

 It was evidently bewildered with the strange abode in which it found itself; and this, combined with physical 

 exhaustion after its long flight, made it so indifferent to its fate that it was caught with no difficulty. 



It would seem reasonable to infer that these Rails follow the mainlaud down to Cape Comorin and 

 then fly across the Gulf of Manaar at night, aided by the northerly wind blowing at the time of their migration. 

 Their Dutch name, it is needless to remark, is founded on this latter fact. 



In the hills it frequents sedgy places near streams in the coffee-estates, and likewise the paddy-fields of 

 the Kandyans j but it is not unfrequently found in dry places far removed from water, and into which it finds 

 its way during its nocturnal wanderings. 



Its breeding-haunts appear still to be undiscovered, and I am therefore unable to give any particulars 

 concerning its nidification. 



Genus JIYPOT.EKLDIA. 



Bill longer than in the last, more slender, but with the gonys pronounced ; nasal depression 

 produced in the form of a groove. Wings with the 3rd quill the longest ; the secondaries more 

 lengthened than in Rallina. Toes longer than in that genus, equal to the tarsus ; hind toe 

 proportionately shorter. 



Plumage banded above. 



