THE INDIAN WATER RAIL. 259 



David and Oustalet, Taczanowski and Prjevalski all write 

 somewhat vaguely ; and though I have no doubt that our bird 

 and Bonaparte's "variety," japoniais of Schlegel, from Japan 

 are identical, I cannot feel absolutely certain^ though I fully 

 believe such to be the case, that the Chinese and Tibetan birds 

 are also identical, and I half suspect, from the way in which 

 some of these authors write, that aquaticus also may extend 

 to China, and that they have not fully appreciated the differ- 

 ence between the two species. 



In THE neighbourhood of Calcutta these birds frequent 

 patches of rush, grass, and brushwood at the edges of wet 

 cultivation, small choked-up ponds, and ditches ; but though 

 they are nearly as common there, to judge from the numbers 

 brought into the market, as the Blue-breasted Banded Rail, and 

 though I have watched for them often, I have never seen one 

 in the open, on land or water, and indeed have only seen some 

 half a dozen in a wild state, most of them accidentally flushed 

 when beating for other things. 



They fly heavily, even more so than the Banded Rail, but 

 in precisely the same style, flapping along with the legs hang- 

 ing down behind, and dropping after twenty or thirty yards, 

 not again to be roused, dogs or no dogs. Indeed, according 

 to my limited experience, they are the greatest skulkers of 

 the whole family. 



Their food, ascertained by an examination of the stomachs 

 of many snared birds, consists chiefly of insects of all kinds, 

 small shells, worms, grass and other seeds, and green vegetable 

 matter. 



There is some small onion-like bulb of which they seem 

 very fond, as I continually found silvery flakes of it amongst 

 their food, which is also much mixed with tiny pebbles and 

 coarse sand. 



Their call-note is a sort of croak, like what a frog, with a tenor 

 instead of a base voice, might be expected to utter. It is often 

 heard, but though you beat for him at once, it is next to impossible 

 to find the croaker. I have never seen more than one flushed in 

 a day ; but the fowlers, who catch them in horse-hair nooses, set 

 along the narrow banks that divide the rice fields, say that there 

 are often half a dozen in the same spot, as also that all or 

 most of them arrive in October and disappear about the begin- 

 ing of April. Some men say say that here and there birds remain 

 the whole year, and that they have found the nests ; but though 

 it is well to note what they say for further verification, no 

 reliance can ever be placed on these people's statements. My 

 own belief is that the bird is purely a cold season visitant to 

 the Empire. 



