694 
Birds of Celebes: Eallidae. 
been recorded, so far as we know, only from the Minahassa, and in three spe- 
cimens, two adults in the British Museum and one scarcely adult bird in the 
Sarasin Collection. Whether these specimens were on migration or not is doubt- 
ful. T-he bird breeds in abundance in Pegu, as Oates has shown, and Swinhoe 
(a 3) obtained the eggs in Formosa. Styan marks it as a summer visitant to 
the Lower Yangtse, and Capt. Butler (12) as such in Belgaum, Bombay 
Presidency, where it breeds in August and September. In Ceylon Col. Legge 
is inclined to think it a winter visitant. 
In a careful article (a 7) Dr. Stejneger has attempted to show that three 
forms of this Rail exist, a large race with white-spotted primary-coverts from 
South China, a small race from Malacca — Java, and a small race with un- 
spotted primary-coverts from the Philippines, but these results ai’e disproven 
with the material in the British Museum by Dr. Sharpe, who considers that 
the differences in plumage can be accounted for on the score of age alone. 
The Andaman Islands, however, are known to be inhabited by a dark race, 
H. obscurior Hume. 
Rather nearly allied to H. stnata is H. philippensis (L.), which also is found 
in Celebes. The latter is much larger (mng 145 mm as against 120), has a long, 
broad superciliary stripe of grey, the remiges banded with rufous, not with white 
(except the two outermost), the upper-parts much more rufous and paler, the 
throat and jugulum only (not breast) grey, the breast banded like the other 
under-parts. 
H. celebensis is easily recognised by its uniform olivaceous upper surface, 
and by its having all the under-parts black, barred with white. 
The habits of H. striata are well described by Bernstein (b2), Oates and 
Legge. In Java the former describes it as plentiful in damp, marshy pastures, 
low wastes of Alang-alang and Glagah, ditches between fields, etc.; a shy bird, 
usually o\erlooked owing to its habits of concealment, often caught during the 
rice and glass harvests owing to its running and hiding under the heaps of 
straw or hay. It feeds on insects, worms, small snails, and such like. In anxiety 
it utters a sharp, shrill cry, also making a noise at times like “hup, hup, hup” 
by forcibly ejaculating the air from its air-sacks. 
297. HYPOTAENIDIA PHILIPPENSIS (L.). 
Banded Rail. 
a. Rallus philippensis (1) Linn., S. N. 1766, I, 263 (exBrisson); (II) Buller, B. N. Zeal. 
1873, 176, pi. 20, fig. 2; (3) Hutton, Ibis 1873, 350; (4) Brligg., Abh. Ver. Brem. 
1876, V, 92; (5) Nicholson, Ibis 1881, 156; (6) id., ib. 1882, 69; (Vllj Buller, 
B. N. Zeal 2'''‘ ed. 1888, II, 95, pi. 33; (8) Wiglesw., Av. Polj-n. 1892, 59. 
b. Rallus pectoralis (I) Gld., B. Austr. TI, pi 76 (1848); (II) Finsch & Hartl, Om. 
Centralpol. 1867, 157, t. IH, f. 3 (egg); (3) Graffe, J. f. O. 1870, 414; (4) Potts, 
Ibis 1872, 37; (V) id., Tr. & Pr., N. Z. Inst. 1873, V, pi. XVHI (head); (6) Hartl, 
Vog. Madag. 1877, 339; (7) E. L. & L. C. Layard, Ibis 1882, 536, 544. 
