Subgenus ERYTIIRA. 
Bill longer than in Gallinula ; the culmen scarcely prolonged upon the forehead ; 2nd quill 
shorter than the 3rd. Tarsus proportionately longer, equal to the middle toe without its claw. 
EKYTHRA PHCENICURA. 
(THE WHITE-BREASTED WATERHEN.) 
Ballus phcenicurus, Forster, Ind. Zool. p. 19, pi. 9 (1781), ex Ceylon ; Gmelin, ed. Syst. Nat. 
i. p. 715 (1788). 
Gallinula plicenicura (Forst.), Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 770 (1790) ; Kelaart, Prodromus, Cat. 
p. 135 (1852) ; Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 268 ; Jerdon, B. of Ind. 
iii. p. 720 (1864) ; Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Balli, p. 41 (1865) ; Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 
1871, p. 414 ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 476 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 424, et 1874, 
p. 300 ; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 276; Hume, Nests and Eggs, iii. p. 599 (1875); Butler 
& Hume, Str. Feath. 1876, p. 21; Fairbank, t. c. p. 263 ; Butler, ibid. 1877, p. 224 ; 
Davison & Hume, ibid. 1878 (B. of Tenass.), p. 466 ; Ball, ibid. viii. p. 229. 
Gallinula javanica, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 136 (1821) ; Sykes, Cat. B. Deccan, 
P. Z. S. 1832, p. 164. 
Porzana phcenicura (Penn.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 284 (1849); id. Ibis, 1867, 
p. 171 ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1873, p. 251. 
Erythra phamicura (Penn.), Reich. Syst. Av. Nat. p. 21 (1852); Walden, Trans. Z. S. 1872, 
viii. p. 94; Salvadori, Uccelli di Born. p. 340 (1874); Walden, Trans. Zool. Soc. 
1875, ix. p. 229 ; Davidson & Wender, Str. Feath. 1878, vii. p. 90 ; Cripps, t. c. p. 306 ; 
Hume, ibid. 1879 (B. of Malay Penin.), p. 70 ; id. t. c. (List. Ind. Birds), p. 113. 
Das rotligeschwanzte Wasserhuhn, Forster ; Bed-tailed Gallinule, Kelaart. Bur ok-Bur ok, 
Borneo (Mottley) ; Kaloo-givet,' Arrakan; Boa Boa, Malay; Eri-Bombo, Java (Blyth); 
Meres, Celebes (Meyer) ; Dawak, Dahak, Hind. ; Boli-kodi, Telugu ; Kureyn of the 
Gonds; Kurayi, Sindh (Jerdon) ; Tannir koli, Ceylonese Tamils; also Kanung-koli. 
Korowaka, Sinhalese, from its call. 
Adult male and female. Length 12-0 inches ; wing 64 to 6-2 ; tail 2-4 ; tarsus 24 to 2-25 ; bare tibia 1‘0 ; mid toe 
and claw 2-5 to 2-6; bill to gape 1-5. 
Iris varying from brown to brownish red ; bill green, culmen dark, and the shield or base of culmen red ; tibia, 
knees, and toes yellowish olivaceous, the tarsus washed with olive-brown ; claws olive-brown. 
Head, upper surface, sides of chest and breast, wings, and tail deep slaty olive-green, passing somewhat into rusty olive 
on the rump, and suffused with a slaty hue on the sides of the chest and breast ; forehead, face, fore neck, down 
the centre of chest and breast white, passing over the eye, and separated by a black border from the olive-green, 
which border is variable in width and blends into the upper colours ; 1st primary with a white edge ; sides of 
rump, tibia-coverts, and under tail-coverts light chestnut, fading into rufescent on the abdomen ; thighs rufes- 
cent white in front and olive-brown behind. 
The width of the white frontal band depends on age; in fully adult birds it is about 0-35 inch in breadth. A 
specimen in abraded plumage in my collection has the feathers of the back tipped with grey; and Mr. Holds worth 
calls attention to a similar specimen. 
