724 
Birds of Celebes: Rallidae. 
increased numbers, passing as far south as the Canary Islands, or still furthei;. 
Pijevalsky and Kadde (26) likewise found it to be a summer visitant to N. E. 
Asia (Lake Khanka, the Tare'i-norj; it is resident in Central China, viz. the Lower 
Yangtse, but its numbers are greatly increased here in winter (Sty an 19), 
while Mr. De La Touche records it (22) from South China, — Foochow and 
Swatow — only in winter. Very possibly this southern migration in winter is 
carried as far south as North Celebes. In Turkestan Scully found it to be a 
summer migrant, at Kandahar C. Swinhoe found it in enormous numbei’s in 
February, but it stayed only about a month; through Gilgit, as Biddulph 
and Scully found, it seems to pass only in migTation, but in India, though 
very many descend no doubt from northern latitudes in winter, it is present 
all the yeai’ and breeds throughout the country, according to Hume, “in large 
jheels and lakes that contain water all the year round”. It is not recorded from 
Ceylon by Legge, nor from Borneo by Everett, though Vorderman has it 
in his list of Bornean birds. 
ihe Coot is a true water-bird, only venturing on land as something out 
of the way, when,^ as Helm (28) pretty clearly shows, it does not seem to 
feel at ease. Its life in the water and on the mud at the banks may probably 
be looked to as the cause of the development of the side-flaps of the skin on 
the toes. Its affinities with the Moor-hen, which may always be found on land 
as well as water, are obvious; the latter, however, has simple toes. 
As a species the Common Coot is most nearly allied to F. cristata Gm. 
of Africa in which the hinder rim of the frontal shield is raised into knobs, 
and F. australis Gld., of Australia, which is identified with F. atra by Schlegel, 
Dresser and Seebohm, but ranked as distinct by Sharpe — the white on the 
tips of the outer secondaries being almost absent, and the size small. East 
Siberian birds are said by Taczanowski to have the frontal shield with a 
compressed rim behind. Salomon Muller’s two specimens from Java in the 
Leyden Museum are of small size. 
ORDER LIMICOLAE. 
The Jacanas, Plovers, Sheathbills, Coursers, Sandpipers, Curlews. They 
differ from the Kails by their pointed wings and light, active flight, by their 
unconcealed habits and the open character of their haunts — usually the sea- 
shore, the strand of rivers, mud-flats, plains, swamps, — by their incapacity for 
swimming {except Phalaropus and to an indifferent extent some of the Waders): 
they feed chiefly upon worms, grubs and insects (except Tkinocoi'us and Attagis 
which look like Turnices), and lay a small number of eggs in a scanty nest 
