THE BANDED CRAKE, 239 



Museum possesses one specimen from Malacca and one from 

 Java, and of which I have seen a third specimen killed by the 

 Marquis of Doria in Singapore." 



^ The only question is, did Salvadori refer to this present spe- 

 cies ? Or did he identify the, at that time, overlooked superciliaris 

 with Lafresnaye's euryzonoides ? 



Little is known of the habits of this species. 



Layard tells us that " these birds arrive in the south of Ceylon 

 in great numbers in the months of October and November, 

 coming in with the first northerly wind which blows (whence 

 their Dutch name) [' Nordewind!~\ They drop exhausted, as 

 if from a long flight, in the streets and houses, and conceal 

 themselves till recovered from their fatigues. I found one in the 

 well of my carriage, another in the folds of the gig apron, and 

 a third in a shoe under my bed." 



Holdsworth says the same as to its taking " refuge in the first 

 place of concealment it can find, often entering houses and 

 hiding amongst the furniture" on its first arrival. 



Later it distributes itself, we learn, about the country, 

 being met with in gardens, wet cultivation and swamps, and 

 being during the colder months by no means rare in South- 

 ern Ceylon, and being found also quite to the north. The little 

 I can learn of its habits seems to show that it is more terrestrial 

 and less aquatic than most of the Crakes, and that it is more 

 often found in coffee plantations, gardens and comparatively dry 

 scrub than in wet crops and swamps. But for a correct and full 

 account of the life-history of this species in Ceylon, we 

 must await the later parts of Captain Legge's admirable work on 

 the Birds of that island. 



NO PRECISE information as to the nidification of this species 

 is available. Layard says: — 



" Some eggs were given me by a native as the eggs of this 

 bird, which were precisely similar in all respects, save that of 

 size, to those of Gallimila phoenicura — axis, 1*085 ; diameter, 

 0*83." One would scarcely expect that these birds should breed 

 during their winter migration, but they may possibly do so. 



Neither I nor any of my regular collectors having ever obtain- 

 ed this species, I have no measurements in the flesh to record. 

 The following are taken from skins : — 



Length, 975 to 1075 ; wing, 4*8 to 5-25 ; tail from vent, 21 

 to 2*3 ; tarsus, 1-5 to 175 ; bill from gape, ri to 1-39. The 

 females seem to average rather smaller than the males. 



