File:Indian sporting birds (1915) (14563941719).jpg

Identifier: indiansportingbi00finn (find matches)
Title: Indian sporting birds
Year: 1915 (1910s)
Authors: Finn, Frank, 1868-1932 Hume, Allan Octavian, 1829-1912 Marshall, Charles Henry Tilson, 1841-
Subjects: Birds -- India Game and game-birds -- India
Publisher: London : Francis Edwards
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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e bird, which is not usually shot, though many specimensare sent to Europe alive, are all apparently variants of that givenabove—Khima, Kharim, and Kalim; in Ceylon the names areIndula, Kukula, Sannary, and Kittala. Watcr-cock. Gallicrex cinereus. Kora, Hindustani. The water-cock, as it is to be met with in the shooting-season, is a game-looking bird with light brown plumage,diversified by streaks on the back, and bars on the under-partsof a darker shade. It has the usual long legs and toes of a rail,and a leaf-shaped bare patch on the forehead. Although muchlighter in build, the male is nearly as big as a coot, the hen beinglittle larger than a moorhen—a sex difference and unique amongthe rails, as i^ also the males assumption of a striking nuptialdress; in this attire he is of dull black on the head, neck, andunder-parts, while the bare patch on his forehead, which, like thelegs, is red, swells up until it becomes at the end a pointed horn.The female has legs of a dusky green. y
Text Appearing After Image:
cc i2l. -y.<C M ;.^ SAEUS CEANE 117 The kora, as this bird is generally called, is widely distributedwith us, but although it ranges as far north as Japan outside ourarea, it keeps in our Empire to the warmer districts; it is athorough marsh-bird, but seems to be rare in some localitieswhere it was formerly common, for Bengal was credited withharbouring plenty of the species, and yet I never saw half adozen specimens during the whole time I was in Calcutta. Thekora is quite a good table-bird, so that if it is getting scarce thisis a pity ; but being nocturnal, it is not likely to come undernotice in the same way that the diurnal coot and moorhen do. The breeding-season is during the rains, and the eggs aregreyish-buff with mauve and chocolate spots; the nest is amongaquatic herbage. Besides Kora, Kengra is Hindustani name forthis bird; in Ceylon it is called WiUikuJculu, Kettala, or Tannir-koli, while the Burmese name is Boiin-dote. Its familiarity tonatives is no doubt due to the

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