HYDROPHASIANUS CHIEUKGUS. 915 



Jacana (Lath.) ; The Pheasant-tailed Jacana (Jerdon) ; Yellow-backed Jacana (Sykes). 

 Piho, Pihuya, Hind. ; Dal-kukra, Dal-pipi, Jab-manjor Chittra billai, Bengal. ; Sardal, 

 Sukdal, also Miwa in some parts (Jerdon). 

 Balal Saaru, lit. " Cat Teal," from its cry ; also Newya, Sinhalese. 



Adult male, in breeding-plumage. Length 16-2 to 18-0 inches ; wing 7 - 8 to 8-1 ; tail 8*0 to 10-0 ; tarsus 2-0 to 2-3 ; middle 

 toe 2-3 to 2-4, claw - 75 ; hind toe 0-8, claw 1-2 ; bill to gape 1-1. 



Adult female, in breeding-plumage. Length 18-0 to 21-5 inches ; wing 8*5 to 9"25 ; tail 11-0 to 12-75; middle toe and 

 claw 3 - l to 3 - 3 ; hind claw 1-5 to 1-7; bill to gape 1-25 ; alar spur 0-3 to 0-35. 



Iris deep brown ; bill light blue at the base, the tip paler or greenish in some ; legs and feet plumbeous blue, claws 

 black. 



Head, face, throat, fore neck, wing-coverts, secondaries, under wing-coverts, the most part of all but the two outer 

 primaries and the base of the 2nd white ; hind neck pale glistening yellow, surmounted by a black nuchal patch, 

 and with a blackish edge at the sides ; back and tail blackish brown, with green and bronze reflections on the upper 

 parts ; scapulars and tertials dark olive-brown, with greenish reflections, the tertials pale towards the extremities ; 

 entire under surface up to the chest, passing up to the interscapular region, purplish black, darkest on the chest 

 and palest on the thigh-coverts : 1st and 2nd primaries black, terminal portions of the remainder and margins of 

 the outer secondaries towards the tip brownish black ; 1st primary bare for about an inch from the tip, with 

 a narrow web at the extremity, the next two with the poiuts of the shafts exceeding the web, the 4th and 5th 

 attenuated and rounded at the tip. 



Winter plumage. Tail very short, 3'5 to 4 - inches ; primaries apparently not so long ; alar spur undeveloped. 



The question of the short primaries requires investigation ; I have found them shorter in one or two specimens. 



Iris yellowish, often with a brown inner circle. Top of head, centre of hind neck, upper back, scapulars, tertials, and 

 central tail-feathers hair-brown, darkening to blackish brown on the rump, and with green and bronze reflections 

 on the back and scapulars ; lesser and median wing-coverts pale brown, the terminal portions of the feathers 

 barred with blackish brown and whitish ; rest of the wing as in summer, but in some the 2nd and 3rd primaries are 

 similarly pointed to the 1st; superciliuin, lower part of eye-fringe, fore neck, under surface, under wing-coverts, 

 and tail white ; a black stripe from the gape beneath and down the side of the neck, passing in a band across the 

 chest ; above this, continuous with the superciliuin, a broad shining yellow stripe ; feathers beneath the pectoral 

 band and at the side of the chest mottled with blackish. 



In some examples some of the white flank-feathers remain in summer. 



The breeding-plumage in Ceylon is donned at the beginning of the year. I have found most birds in the north-west 

 and south-east of the island attired in it in February ; and in the south of Ceylon I observed that in October all 

 birds were in winter dress. 



The nuptial plumage appears to be put on by a change of colour in the feather. An example in my collection, shot at 

 Kurunegala in February, has the breast-feathers turning black, and those of the hind neck brown and glistening 

 golden, the latter colour appearing at the base; the winter tail-feathers are moulted, and the larger breeding ones 

 acquired simultaneously with the change in the clothing-feathers. 



In the north of Ceylon the season of change is perhaps somewhat later ; I have obtained birds in old feather and still 

 in breeding-plumage in July. 



The nestling is figured by Gray and Hardwicke as covered with buff down, tinged with grey on the sides of the neck 

 and with reddish on the wings ; a dull stripe through the eye, another down the hind neck and back, and a triple 

 stripe starting from a band behind the wing, the outermost of which descends the thighs. 



Young. Immature birds somewhat resemble winter examples ; the superciliary line is ferruginous, the fore neck washed 

 with fulvous, and the yellow neck-stripe much paler or less golden than in the adult ; the pectoral band is not so 

 strongly developed. 



Obs. I find but little variation in this species from other parts of its habitat ; but some Chinese specimens I have 

 examined have the hind-neck golden patch very large and the black border very broad. These are probably indi- 

 vidual peculiarities. A fine example in the Swinhoe collection measures: — wing 8-0 inches to end of web, 9 - to 

 end of appendage; tail 12-0. An Indian example in the British Museum measures 7" 7 inches in the wing; 

 tail 8-6 ; tarsus 2'0 ; middle toe 2 - 0, its claw (straight) - 7. 



6b 



