HYPOTJINIDIA STRIATA, 



(THE BLUE-BREASTED RAIL.) 



Rallus striatus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 262 (1766, ex Brisson) ; Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 714 

 (1788) ; Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 285 (1849) ; Layard & Kelaart, Prodromus, 

 Cat. B. App. p. 62 (1853); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 267; Jerdon, 

 B. of Ind. iii. p. 726 (1864) ; Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 172 ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 476. 



Rallus gularis, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. 1821, xiii. p. 196. 



Hypotamidia striata (Linn.), Schl. Mus. Pays-B. Ralli, p. 24 (1805) ; Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, 

 p. 415 ; Salvadori, Ucc. di Born. p. 336 (1874); Walden, Tr. Z. S. ix. p. 232 (1875); 

 Hume, Nests and Eggs, iii. p. 605 (1875) ; id. Str. Feath. 1875, p. 189 ; Armstrong, ibid. 

 1876, p. 349 ; Oates, ibid. 1877, p. 165 ; Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 471 ; Davison, Str. 

 Feath. 1878 (B. of Tenass.), p. 468; Hume, ibid. 1879, p. 70 (B. of Malay Penin.), et 

 p. 113 (List Ind. Birds). 



Tiklin raye, Buffon ; The Striated Rail of some. Wade-kodi, Telugu (Jerdon). 



Kormvaka, Sinhalese ; Rurok-Rurok-peai, Borneo (Mottley). 



Adult male and female. Length 1O0 to ll - 5 inches ; wing 4 - 6 to 4-7 ; tail 1-6 ; tarsus 1*55 to 1/65 ; mid toe and 



claw 1*8 ; bill to gape 1-6 to 1'75. 

 Iris red ; bill — culmen dark brown, paling to slate at the tips, the sides of both mandibles red ; legs and feet 



olivaceous or livid brown, with the joints darker ; claws pale brown. 



Dr. Armstrong records the iris of a Rangoon example as " light yellowish brown." 



Male. Forehead, top of the head, nape, and hind neck ferruginous chestnut, the centres of the feathers dark ; lower 

 part of hind neck, back, wings, and tail brownish black, paling at the margins of the feathers to olive in some and 

 rufescent olive in others, each feather crossed with wavy bars of white ; quills blackish brown, barred with white ; 

 lores, face, fore neck and half its sides, chest, and upper breast slate-blue, enclosing a white chin and gorge ; breast, 

 belly, flanks, under tail-coverts, thighs, and under wing-coverts blackish brown (in some olive-brown), closely 

 barred with wavy w r hite bands, broadest on the flanks ; under tail-coverts with deep buff-white tips and bars. 



Female. The ferruginous chestnut-colour of the head does not descend so much upon the hind neck ; otherwise the 



same. 

 The coloration of the upper surface is variable in my Ceylonese specimens, probably the result of age. Some are more 



olive than others, this colour occupying, in such cases, much more than the margin of the feathers. There is 



more white on the under tail-coverts in some specimens than in others. 



Young. A presumed immature bird in the British Museum has the head and hind neck rufescent, the crown striped 

 with black ; chin and throat whitish ; fore neck washed with rufescent ; back and wings paler than in adults, but 

 barred the same ; flanks scantily barred with white ; middle of the breast and abdomen whitish. 



Obs. This species, judging from the observations of Indian observers, is subject to some variation in the colour of the 

 soft parts and likewise in size ; that is, if Jerdon's or Mr. Hume's measurements (Str. Feath. 1874, p. 302), which 

 indicate a maximum of 5 - 25 and 5-2 inches respectively in the wing, be correct. I have not met with a Ceylonese 

 specimen exceeding 4-7 inches. Professor Schlegel's dimensions, taken from a series from Java, China, Luzon, 

 aud Cochin China, are 4 inches 1 line to 4 inches 8 lines. A Bornean individual in the British Museum measures 

 4-5 inches, and a small series of Philippine, Indian, and Burman examples kindly lent me by Captain Wardlaw 

 Ramsay vary from 4-5 to 4-8 inches. Philippine individuals are very dark, in fact almost inseparable from the 

 Andaman race or subspecies H. obscuriora, Hume (H. ferrea, Walden), which I will presently notice ; the black 

 portions of the upper-surface feathers are much darker and extend over them, leaving the margins and terminal 



