86 
GUIDE TO THE 
breed on its island. Gallinula chloropus is the bird so 
well known in England as the Moor-hen, and has a 
very wide distribution over Europe and Asia. 
The Pheasant-tailed Jacana belongs to a group of birds 
closely allied to the Rails. It is distinguished by its ex¬ 
tremely long and straight claws in which it differs from all 
other birds. It occurs in India and Ceyloil, and chiefly 
inhabits jheels and marshes in which the aquatic vegeta¬ 
tion is abundant, especially where the lotus plant thrives, 
with its broad expanse of floating leaves over which the 
Jacana is enabled to walk by reason of the great expanse 
of its foot, and in such localities it constructs its floating 
nest. Its breeding plumage is remarkably distinct from its 
ordinary plumage, as it is characterized by considerable 
changes in colour, and by the presence, in the male, of a 
long tail, which has suggested the name of pheasant-tail 
which is applied to it. 
In this blouse, there are two other birds, belonging 
to the genus Aix, the one the Summer and the other 
the Mandarin-duck, both of which undergo remarkable 
changes of plumage at the beginning of the cold weather. 
The latter duck is of course from China, whilst the former 
is its North American representative. 
The large white Egret, although it does not exhibit in 
its breeding plumage any of those marked changes of 
colour which distinguish the foregoing birds, as it remains 
always white, it yet develops trains and festoons of feathers, 
broken up almost as finely as hairs, and which add greatly 
to the elegance of the bird ; one of these festoons is dor¬ 
sal and the other pectoral, and there is also a long pendant 
crest. These feathers are very valuable. 
