s leaves or tufts of
water-grass. The eggs of the two species show but little similarity.
Both, however, are very beautiful and remarkable. The eggs of the
bronze-winged jacana have a rich brownish-bronze background, on which
black lines are scribbled in inextricable confusion, so that the egg
looks as though Arabic texts had been scrawled over it. This species
might well be called "the Arabic writing-master." The eggs of the
water-pheasant are in shape like pegtops without the peg. They are of
a dark rich green-bronze colour, and devoid of any markings.

The nest of the handsome, but noisy, purple coot (_Porphyrio
poliocephalus_) is a platform of rushes and reeds which is sometimes
placed on the ground in a rice field, but is more often floating, and
is then tethered to a tree or some other object. From six to ten eggs
are laid. These are very beautiful objects. The ground colour is
delicate pink. This is spotted and blotched with crimson; beneath
these spots there are clouds of pale purple which have the appearance
of lying beneath the surface of the shell.

The white-breasted water-hen (_Gallinula phoenicura_) is a bird that
must be familiar to all. One pair, at least, is to be found in every
village which boasts of a tank and a bamboo clump, no matter how small
these be. The water-hen is a black bird about the size of the average
bazaar fowl, with a white face, throat and breast. It carries its
short tail almost erect, and under this is a patch of brick-red
feathers. During most seasons of the year it is a silent bird, but
from mid-May until the end of the monsoon it is exceedingly noisy,
and, were it in the habit of haunting our gardens and compounds, its
cries would attract as much attention as do those of the koel and the
brain-fever bird. As, however, water-hens are confined to tiny hamlets
situated far away from cities, many people are not acquainted with
their calls, which "Eha" describes as "roars, hiccups and cackles."
The nest is built in a bamboo clump or other dense thicket. The eggs
are stone-coloured, with spots of brown, red and purple. The young
birds, when first hatched, are covered with black down, and look like
little black ducklings. They can run, swim and dive as soon as they
leave the egg. Little parties of them are to be seen at the edge of
most village tanks in August.

The resident ducks are all busy with their nests. The majority of them
lay their eggs in July, so that in August they are