Page:The Common Birds of Bombay.djvu/193

Rh people with our own esteem for ugly utilities, and the rusty water-tap is dispossessing the picturesque tank; but there are many left yet in the suburbs of Bombay, though the villages which they once vitalised may have disappeared. And there is one left in our very midst, the Gowalia tank. In such places, if you look for it, you may perhaps see the Jacana gingerly treading the floating leaves. There are two species, the Bronze-winged (Parra indica) and the Pheasant-tailed (Hydrophasiamts chirurgus). The latter is a bird never to be forgotten if seen in its wedding dress. Its head, face and throat are then white, the back of its neck golden yellow, its body mostly dark chestnut brown, and its wings black and white. Its tail is black and shaped like the tail of a domestic cock or a pheasant, the middle feathers being ten inches long. In the cold season it drops this ornament and assumes a plainer plumage, brown above and white beneath. A black line from the corner of the mouth runs down each side of the neck and forms a broad gorget on the breast. The nest of the Jacana is a floating heap of weeds among the rushes and lilies that it loves. The eggs are always four, those of the Bronze-winged being buff, or olive, crossed all over with a maze of black lines, while those of the Pheasant-tailed are of a uniform, glossy, bronze-brown colour.

The Purple Coot and Water Cock, though familiar enough to sportsmen everywhere, can scarcely claim a place here.