350 
BIRDS OF BEITISH BURMAH. 
wing-coverts brown_, each feather edged with buffy white ; primaries and 
secondaries plain brown^ the first primary with the shaft and the enter web 
white ; upper tail-coverts dark brown^ edged with pale buffy white ; tail 
brown^ the outer feathers faintly edged paler ; chin^ throat, sides and front 
of the neck_, breast, upper abdomen, the thigh-coverts and the whole of the 
sides of the body blackish, each feather distinctly edged with greyish white ; 
lower abdomen and vent greyish white ; under tail-coverts white barred 
with dark brown ; edge of the wing white ; under wing-coverts mingled 
white and brown. 
The male in winter has the fleshy process on the head reduced in size or 
nearly obsolete. 
The female at all seasons has merely a frontal shield, and the plumage 
differs from that of the male. The crown and nape are reddish brown ; 
the whole upper plumage, scapulars, tertiaries, wing-coverts and tail dark 
brown broadly edged with rufous -grey ; the primaries and secondaries 
plain brown, the first primary with the shaft and outer web dull white ; the 
lores and feathers round the eyes rafescent ; the ear-coverts and feathers 
under the lores brown ; chin, cheeks and throat white ; the whole lower 
plumage rufescent closely barred with brown ; the edge of the wing white ; 
the under wing-coverts mingled white and brown. 
The young bird is very rufous, but otherwise like the female. 
Iris brown (probably red in old males) ; eyelids plumbeous ; frontal 
shield and base of upper mandible deep red ; remainder of the bill yellow, 
a spot on each side of the base of the lower mandible red ; frontal process 
or horn pinkish ; legs plumbeous green ; claws horn-colour. 
Length 17 inches, tail 3*8, wing 8*5, tarsus 3*3, bill from gape 1*7. 
The female is very much smaller, the wing being about 7 and the tail 3. 
The Water-cock is found over the whole of Burmah except, perhaps, in 
the south of Tenasserim, where Mr. Davison did not observe it. 
It occurs over a considerable portion of India, Ceylon and the Andaman 
Islands, the Indo-Burmese countries. Southern China, Cochin China, the 
Malay peninsula, Java, Borneo, the Philippines, and probably Sumatra. 
This bird is common in all the low sw^ampy parts of the country. I am 
inclined to think that it visits Burmah only in the rains ; for I have never 
met with it in the dry weather ; but at this period it will be silent, and 
consequently likely to escape notice. It is generally seen in low flooded 
grass-land, and it feeds chiefly in the mornings and late in the evenings. 
It has a loud booming note, which may be heard a long distance and 
cannot be mistaken for that of any other bird. I have frequently found 
it breeding in July and August ; it makes a large nest of reeds on the 
ground and lays five or six eggs, which are buff spotted with reddish 
brown. 
