RALLINA EURTZONOIDES. 
773 
The form inhabiting the Philippine Islands is somewhat darker in its chestnut or rufous coloration and has less white 
on the throat. An example from Manilla in the British Museum exhibits these characters, and has the rufous 
descending lower upon the breast and the black bands of the under surface broader than in Ceylonese and Indian 
skins. Its measurements are wing 5-3 inches ; tarsus 1-65 ; bill to gape 1-03. Three examples (2 J IQ) from 
Cebu and other Philippine localities, in Captain Wardlaw Ramsay’s collection, and kindly lent me by that 
gentleman, correspond with the Museum skin; they have the rufous of the head and hind neck very dark and 
the chin is very pale rufescent or rufescent whitish ; the black on the breast, abdomen, under tail- and under 
wing-coverts preponderates over the white. The female has the red colour descending from the head upon the 
hind neck. The dimensions are:— d, wing 4- 9-5 -4 inches, tarsus 1-65-1-78, bill to gape 1-15; whig 5-4, 
tarsus 1-58, bill to gape 1'18. This Philippine race seems to me almost worthy of distinction as a subspecies' 
r based upon its darker coloration and the fact of the female being similar to the male. 
The Malaccan representative (It. fasciata, Raffles) of our bird differs in being smaller, and in having the wing-coverts 
and quills brown barred with white, the latter on both webs of course. The head, neck, and chest are dull 
rufous-chestnut, with the throat slightly paler ; the lower parts are very broadly banded with black; the back 
and tail rufous-brown (Singapore, British Museum). Mr. Hume, in his exhaustive paper on the birds of 
Tenassenm, describes this species fully, and states that both sexes are alike. His measurements (5-0 to 5-3) for 
the wing of male examples are, however, in excess of what mine are for Ceylonese examples of It. euryzonoides ; 
and from this I infer that the latter species varies considerably in size, for Ceylonese migrants of this bird must 
be identical with those which pass through India. 
A very closely allied species from China is It. mandariaa, Swinhoe. A specimen before me is more olivaceous on the 
back than our bird ; it is a male, and the brown of the hind neck extends forward on the head to the bill, where 
it is tinged with the ferruginous hue of the face and chest; the scapulars and wing-coverts are crossed sparingly 
with very white bands. The dimensions of this example are— wing 5-0 inches, tarsus 1-42, middle toe 1-42, 
bill to gape 1'08 ; the chin is whitish, and the white bands of the lower parts narrower than the black. 
Rcdlma eanningi, Tytler, from the Andamans, somewhat resembles our species, but is much larger, measuring from 
6-3 to 6-5 inches in the wing. I have not personally examined this bird ; but it is described as being very hand- 
some, with the “ upper parts and breast of a rich dark colour, approaching to maroon ; a slight olivaceous tinge 
about the rump ; throat less deeply coloured ; the abdominal region, flanks, and plumes black, with from two to 
four transverse white bands on each feather ” (Blyth). 
The first description of this species, until recently, has always been ascribed to Grnelin, and his name zeylanicus (after- 
wards modified into ceybnkus) almost invariably assigned to it. The late Marquis of Tweeddale, however, pointed 
out (P. Z. S. 1877) that Grnelin did not found his description on Brown’s figure “ The Rail ” (p. 94, p ]. 37 0 f ],j s 
‘ Illustrations ’), but upou another bird described by Brown as a “ Rail” (p. 96, pi. 38). Grnelin quoted p. 96 
when describing his Radius zeylanicus, at the same time referring, in error, to the right drawing of this species in 
plate 37. This, however, is not considered as proof that he had Brown’s The Rail in view, for his diagnosis does 
not apply to it. The next oldest title given to the bird is that of Lafresnaye, and it has therefore been adopted. 
Distribution.- This interesting Rail arrives in Ceylon, appearing, so far as has been observed, chiefly on 
the west coast, at the end of October and the beginning of November. When the north or “longshore" 
wmd sets m those who are acquainted with this bird at Colombo begin to look out for it, as it arrives on 
the coast m an exhausted state, and on coming to terra firma conceals itself in the first place which it can 
tmd, very generally choosing houses and hiding behind furniture, in thatched roofs, or even in Wellington 
boots I first heard of it from my friend Mr. Holdsworth, who found one in his bedroom at the Galle-face 
Hotel. Mr Bligh afterwards informed me of several having been captured in the same building which 
abuts on to the sea-beach, and affords the exhausted travellers a speedy but unsafe refuge. Some years greater 
numbers seem to arrive than others. In October 1876 several were caught at Colombo, one of which I found 
one morning early m the new buildings at the corner of Chatham and Queen’s Streets ; and a day or two after- 
wards another was captured m my hack yard at the new officers’ -quarters, while a third was found in the 
Surveyor-General s office. It is only at this season that they are noticed on the coast, and a short time 
afterwards they have entirely disappeared and are not often to he found even in the low country of the interior 
They take their departure for the hills and are not uncommon during the cooler months about Kandy' 
Deltota, Hewahette, and Maturata. Mr. Bligh has recently sent me an example which he procured on the 
summit of the Harangolla patnas, close to the Trigonometrical station ; he has likewise shot it in i ,1 
above Catton estate, at an elevation of over 5000 feet; and Mr. Thwaites tells me that it has been killccfat 
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