242 THE ANDAMANESE BANDED CRAKE. 



cutting guinea-grass, noticed a bird sitting on her nest. He 

 quietly dropped his cloth over both, and brought them straight 

 to me. The nest was merely a lot of the grass rolled together. 

 It contained 6 eggs. This patch of guinea-grass grows under a 

 number of big trees left standing at the edge the forest. The 

 nest was in a hollow, a little above a small wet-weather stream 

 on a projecting root." 



The eggs, though smaller, strongly recall those of the Common 

 Water-Hen, and also some varieties of those of the Purple Coot. 

 The eggs are broad, very regular ovals, scarcely narrowed at the 

 smaller end. The shell is fine ; glossless in some specimens, 

 with a faint gloss in others. The ground colour varies from 

 pinky white to a rich pinky stone colour, or even warm cafe 

 au lait, and they are boldly streaked and blotched, chiefly about 

 the large end, with maroon red and reddish purple of varying 

 shades and degrees of intensity in different specimens ; spots 

 and specks of the same tints are scattered over the rest of the 

 surface of the egg, but it is only towards the large end that the 

 markings are large or thickly set. The eggs vary from 1*35 to 

 1*44 in length, and from 1*05 to 1*13 in breadth. 



It WAS to Captain Wimberley that I was indebted for a magni- 

 ficent series (no less than twelve specimens, all carefully sexed 

 and measured in the flesh) of this singularly beautiful Rail. 



The following are the dimensions ; the sexes do not appear 

 to differ perceptibly in size ; the females may perhaps average 

 smaller, but some females are as large as any males : — 



Length, 130 to 14-5 ; expanse, 19-0 to 20'0 ; wing, 5-95 to 6*4 ; 

 tail from vent, 3*25 to y6 ; tarsus, 2-05 to 2*3 ; bill from gape, 

 1*35 to 1*5 ; bill at front, n to r22; mid-toe and claw, 1*85 to 

 2*o ; its claw only, 0*4 to o - 45. 



The legs and feet are olive green ; the bill a delicate pale 

 chrysoprase green ; the irides are red. 



THE PLATE is, we think, admirable, and represents most accurate- 

 ly a pair of adults, the male being in the fore-ground. 



Some specimens, apparently chiefly females, are duller coloured, 

 and have a marked olivaceous tinge on the rump and upper 

 tail-coverts. 



When the wings are opened, and the elongated tertiaries 

 (which are longer than the longest primaries) are pushed aside, 

 the primaries and secondaries are found to be an olivaceous 

 brown on the outer webs, pretty strongly tinged with rufous, 

 with the inner webs black or blackish brown; on the inner 

 webs are numerous moderately narrow, somewhat slanting, 

 transverse white or rufescent white bars, about three on the 

 first primary, four on the next, and five or six on the others ; 

 in some specimens the outer webs are quite unbarred and 



