

Porzana fusca, Linne. 



Vernacular Names.— [Chota Boder, Nepal ; Yaygyet (Burmese), Pegu; 



IKE most of the other Rails, an accomplished skulker, 

 seldom seen, and even when seen little heeded by 

 sportsmen, I find it impossible to define the range 

 of the Ruddy Crake with any approach to accuracy. 

 Dr. Jerdon tells us that it " is found throughout 

 India ; it is not very common in the south, but more 

 abundant in the north, especially in the well-watered 

 province of Bengal." But this is clearly a very vague statement, 

 and there is no evidence to support such a wide distribution. 



It occurs in Ceylon, but I find no record of it from any part 

 of Southern India. Jerdon enters it in none of his catalogues, 

 so he did not get it, long-continued and wide-spread as were 

 his researches, in Southern India. No one gives it from the Dec- 

 can, and I have never received it from the Central Provinces ; 

 but Mr. Vidal is certain that he has seen it near Dapoli in the 

 Southern Konkan, and it may also occur on the Malabar Coast. 

 Ball does not include it in his list from the " Ganges to the 

 Godavari." There is no reason to assume that it occurs any- 

 where in Guzerat, Rajputana, Cutch, Kathiawar or Sind, or 

 the western portions of the Punjab. 



But it is common throughout the Deltaic districts of Bengal, 

 and occurs, though only I should say as a rare straggler, in 

 Behar, Oudh, the North- Western Provinces, and the Punjab, Cis- 

 Sutlej, and during the breeding season is common, and per- 

 haps to a certain extent it is a permanent resident, in all suit- 

 able localities in the outer ranges of the Himalayas, up to 



* The nomenclature of the Rails sadly needs revision. No two authors agree. 

 E.g '-, the Marquis of Tweeddale, in his latest papers, kept fusca as a Porzana, and 

 I think correctly, while Gray and Salvadori, unite it with JRallina. Schlegel keeps 

 cinerea, as I think rightly, as Porzana, while Salvadori and Tweeddale class it with 

 Oriygometra, the Corn Crake. Failing a more exhaustive examination of the group 

 than I can make at present, I include all the smaller old-world Rails not conspicuously 

 banded, with bills and feet very similar to the Spotted- Crake, as Porzana, Crakes ; 

 all the banded Rails of this same type as Rallina, Banded Crakes ; Ortygometra I 

 reject, and adopt Crex for the short-stout-billed Corn Crake or Land Rail type. 

 Hypoicenidia, I apply to the longer-billed banded birds, as Banded Rails, and 

 Rallus to the birds of the European Water Rail type. 



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