218 THE RUDDY CRAKE. 



elevations of from four to six thousand feet from the Woolar 

 Lake in Kashmir to Bhutan. Again, it is comparatively common 

 in the cold season in the Duars and the entire Sub-Himalayan 

 belt of Tarai, Dun and Bhabar westwards from the Teesta 

 to the Chenab. It probably equally occurs in Chittagong, 

 Tipperah, Sylhet, Cachar and the whole of Assam, but the only 

 locality at which I know of its occurrence within this vast tract 

 is Shillong, where both Godwin -Austen and ourselves pro- 

 cured it. I know of its occurrence in several localities in 

 Aracan and Pegu,* but we have never found any trace of it in 

 any part of Tenasserim. 



Outside our limits, though it occurs in Sumatra, Borneo, Java 

 and the Philippines, - !- we have failed to obtain it or find any 

 record of its occurrence in the Malay Peninsula. It has been 

 sent from Independent Burma, and Dr. Anderson found it com- 

 mon in the marshes near Momien, in the south-western portion 

 of the now Chinese Province of Yunan. 



Westwards of India it is not known to occur in either Kabul, 

 Beluchistan, Persia, or any part of Turkestan ; but in the east, in 

 Japan, Formosa, and pretty well throughout China, in Eastern 

 Manchooria,and South-east Siberia, a doubtfully distinct species J 

 (P. erythrothorax) is found, which I am inclined to think should 

 be united with our bird. 



It IS only in the neighbourhood of Calcutta that I have been 

 able to watch this species, and there, there are small reed and 

 rush-fringed ponds, on the leaf-paved surfaces of which I have 

 in the early mornings seen as many as a dozen, tripping along 

 briskly here and there, picking up all kinds of insects and the 

 larvae of these, so abundantly adhering to the lotus leaves. 



They seem peaceable and gregarious birds, never fighting or 

 skirmishing with each other, and, as they feed, calling softly to 

 each other. Their note, — the only one I ever heard to distin- 

 guish as theirs, — was a low soft " toot, toot," but there was a much 

 louder cry which I often heard in the rushes and which I believed 

 to be theirs, as it was not that of any of the other water birds 

 that I knew to frequent these marshy recesses, — " keek — keek — 

 keek, keek, keek, keek, kya" At least that is how it sounded to 

 my ears, but you cannot syllablize these calls so that others 

 will recognize them. 



* Mr. Oates writes : — 



"Generally distributed over all the swamps of the Pegu Province. It is a per- 

 manent resident and breeds here." 



t Although the Japanese race has been said to be the bird of the Philippines 

 (and it may be so of Luzon), the Marquis of Tweeddale notes that his specimens from 

 Mindanao and Leyte are true fusca. 



% This species is said to be distinguished by its somewhat larger size (which a 

 comparison of the dimensions given by Swinhoe does not confirm), longer toes, and 

 by the red on the breast and abdomen not descending so low down as in fusca. If 

 really separable, it is extretnely closely allied to our bird. 



