File:Indian sporting birds (1915) (14563944498).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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ife, and is notso much of a skulker as many of its tribe, and early in themorning may be found in the vicinity of water, running about onthe bare ground or rocks, and is frequently seen swimming.Pools, streams, and open wells, with but little cover, are frequentedby it, and it often perches ; it is, indeed, found in the sort ofsituations a moorhen frequents. It nests in high grass or onbushes, and lays about six brown-spotted pinkish-white eggs.Outside India it is found in China, but has not turned up inthe intermediate countries. Whitc-brcastcd Watcr-hcn. Amaurornis i^hcenicura. Daicak, Hindustani. The contrast between the black upper and white under-partsof this bird, which is besides of a fair size for a rail, being aboutas big as a partridge though much slimmer, make it a con-spicuous object whenever it comes out of its cover. This itpretty frequently does, for it is the most indifferent to humanproximity of all our rails, and is quite common, not only in * Porzana on plate. ^■-
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MOORHEN 113 cultivated places, but in the actual neighbourhood of houses andin gardens. It is also, though at home by the waterside and notaverse to swimming, not so confined to watery places as most ofthe family, but frequently seen in hedges and among crops, awayfrom water. It is not only the most familiar, but about the most widelydistributed of all our rails, living nearly everywhere within ourlimits, even in the Andamans, where it is quite abundant. Itis, however, rare in the North-west and does not ascend theHimalayas, though found in the swamps at their bases. Althoughless timid than rails in general, it has all their essential character-istics—fluttering flight with hanging legs, flicking up of the tail,which in this case displays the chestnut patch underneath,running, swimming, and perching powers, and omnivorousdietary. The rail habit of being more heard than seen is also very welldeveloped in this species, for it is a very Boanerges among birds,and can literally roar down

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