Genus RALLTTS. 
Bill long, slender, slightly curved ; upper mandible deeply grooved ; nostrils linear, placed 
close to the margin. Wings short, somewhat rounded, the 2nd and 3rd quills the longest, the 
1st equal to the 7th. Tail short, cuneate. Legs rather short. Tibia bare for less than the 
length of the hind toe and claw. Tarsus shorter than the middle toe, covered in front with broad 
transverse scales ; outer toe considerably longer than the inner ; hind toe short. 
Sternum exceedingly narrow, compressed near the centre almost to the keel, with a very deep 
and narrow notch in the hinder part. 
EALLUS INDICUS. 
(THE INDIAN WATER-RAIL.) 
Rallus indicus, Blyth, J. A. S. B. 1849, xviii. p. 820 ; id. Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 286 (1849); 
Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 267 ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 726 
(1864) ; Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 415 ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 476 ; Blyth, Ibis, 1873, 
p. 80; Swinhoe, Ibis, 1873, p. 363, et 1874, p. 163; Hume, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 416 ; 
Blakiston & Pryer, Ibis, 1878, p. 225 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1879 (List B. of Ind.) p. 113. 
Kuina, Japanese (Blakiston). 
Adult. (Ceylon : Poole Museum.) Length (from mounted specimen) 10-0 inches ; wing 5-0 ; tail 2-2 ; tarsus 1-45 ; 
mid toe, without claw, 1-45; hind toe O' 35 ; bill to gape 1-45, height at base 0-34. 
Not mature. (Bengal.) Wing 5 -2 inches ; tail 2T ; tarsus 1-5 ; middle toe, without claw, To ; bill to gape 1-56. 
Female. (Japan: not mature; Swinhoe collection.) Wing 5'0 inches ; tail 2'2 ; tarsus T4 ; middle toe, without claw, 
1-5 ; bill to gape 1-5, height at base 0-33. 
“ Ills red-brown ; bill dull red, dusky on the culmen and tip ; legs and feet dirty pale green.” (Jerdon.) 
(Ceylon.) Head, nape, and hind neck, and the central portion of the feathers of the back, scapulars, tertials, and tail 
brown-black, the margins of the feathers clear yellowish olive, very narrow on the head, and increasing on the back 
and remaining aforesaid parts, those of the tertials being very broad ; edge of the wing white ; lesser coverts and 
the inner feathers of the median and lesser series concolorous with the margins of the back-feathers ; primary- 
coverts, primaries, and secondaries dark brown, the edge of the 1st quill somewhat pale, the margins of the tail- 
feathers duskier than the back ; above the lores, on each side of the forehead, pale greyish, passing over the eye into 
the pale bluish grey of the sides of the head, face, fore neck, chest, and breast ; lores dark brown, passing beneath 
the eye in a well-defined stripe to the ear-coverts ; chin and gorge whitish, blending into the surrounding grey • 
flanks, sides of the abdomen, and the under tail-coverts black-brown, banded with white, except on the under tail- 
coverts, which are margined with it ; under wing blackish brown, banded with white, along the edge white ; thighs 
brown. 
Ohs. The above description is taken from the faded Poole specimen, aided, as regards the tints, by a reference to the 
Bengal and Japanese skins*; the distribution of colour is the same in each, and so are the tints, as can be seen 
by looking at those parts which happen to have kept their colour in the first-named example. 
* These are the only three examples I can trace anywhere in England. The species is wanting in the British Museum ; 
and there is not a single specimen in the immense collection amassed by the late Marquis of Tweeddale, and now in the 
possession of Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay. The Bengal and Japanese examples are in Mr. Seebohm’s museum. 
