Porzana cinerea, Vieillot 



Vernacular Names.— [ 



HE inclusion of this species in the present work 

 was based upon the supposed fact that Mr. Hodg- 

 son had obtained it in Nepal. 

 This appears to be a mistake. 

 Mr. Hodgson obtained in Nepal a species that 

 he called nigrolineata, which was doubtless the 

 Banded Crake. Mr. Gray at one time* wrongly 

 identified this with Eyton's superciliaris, a distinct bird, which 

 I have shown (S. F., VII. , p. 451) is identical with my telma- 

 topkila, described (torn cit., p. 142), like Eyton's, from a Malaccan 

 specimen. 



Schlegel and others, it would seem, erroneously identified 

 superciliaris of Eyton with cinerea of Vieillot. Then Finsch 

 and Hartlaub (Central Polyn., 164), the Marquis of Tweeddale 

 (Tr. Z. S., VIII., 94) and others arrived at the conclusion 

 that the present species occurs in Nepal ; whereas, in the 

 first place, it is R. euryzonoides, not superciliaris, that Hodgson 

 obtained in Nepal ; and, in the second place, the latter is totally 

 distinct from our present species. 



There is, therefore, no record of the occurrence of this species 

 within our limits ; but as we have figured it, I must say a few 

 words about it. 



We have obtained it on Singapore Island, and it has been 

 sent from Malacca ; but, so far as we yet know, it is confined 

 to the central and southern portions of the Malay Peninsula. 

 Thence it stretches through Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Philip- 

 pines, Timor, Celebes, &c, New Guinea, and Australia to New 

 Caledonia, the Samoan, and other of the South Pacific Islands. 



We KNOW nothing of the habits of this Crake. Davison 

 flushed and shot a single specimen one evening from a little 

 road-side water-course in the suburbs of Singapore. It rose 



* In his Hand List he later correctly identified it with oar Indian bird, eury- 

 zonoides, Lafresnaye, amauroptera of Blyth. 



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