A greyish-brown bird marked all over with thin white or buff cross bars.
The loud call of this bird must be familiar to most Anglo-Indians. It is uttered early in the morning and again at sunset. Blanford describes it as “beginning with two or three single harsh notes, and continuing with a succession of trisyllabic, shrill, ringing cries.” Jerdon says of this species: “Its call is a peculiar loud shrill cry, and has, not unaptly, been compared to the word Pateela-pateela-pateela, quickly repeated, but preceded by a single note uttered two or three times, each time with a higher intonation, till it gets, as it were, the key-note of its call.”
This species runs very fast, and does not, as a rule, take to its wings unless flushed. (I. G. II. p. 51, but plate not a good one.)
The Rails, 174-176
[174]. Amaurornis phœnicurus: The White-breasted Water-hen. (F. 1401), (J. 907), (+II.)
A dark slaty-grey bird, almost black, with a white face, throat, and breast. The under parts of the tail, which is carried almost erect, are chestnut red. Wherever there is a pond having near it some bamboos or rushes there is one likely to see a water-hen. It is a great skulker, and always makes for cover the moment it thinks it is being watched. “It is,” as Blanford remarks, “an excessively noisy bird; its loud, hoarse, reiterated call, predominating in the evening and morning over the cries of the other waders and the ducks in the village tank, must be familiar to most people in India.” (Illus. B. B., p. 173.)
[175]. Porphyrio poliocephalus: The Purple Moorhen, or Purple Coot. (F. 1404), (J. 902), (IV.)
A beautiful purple-blue bird with very long red legs. The bill is red, as is a square shield which the bird carries on its forehead. It has a white patch under its tail. It is impossible to mistake this bird. There is none other like unto it in India. One frequently comes across it when out shooting.
[176]. Fulica atra: The Coot. (F. 1405), (J. 903), (IV.)
This is the most duck-like of all the rails, and indeed is very frequently shot and eaten as a duck by inexperienced sportsmen. However, its shining black plumage and its white bill and shield on the forehead serve to differentiate it from all Indian ducks. Moreover, when disturbed on the water, it experiences some difficulty in starting to fly. It runs along the surface of the water for a few feet with vigorous flappings of the wings and much splashing before it succeeds in lifting itself out of the water. It does not usually keep in flocks as ducks do. It breeds in India. It does not swim so high in the water as a duck. Its feet are not webbed, but its toes are pinnate, i.e. provided with flattened membranes which assist it in swimming. Its bill is not so flat as that of a duck.