236 THE MALAYAN BANDED CRAKE,
I HAVE been unable to learn anything of the nidification of
this species.
THE PLUMAGE of the sexes does not differ appreciably, unless
the throat of the female be a little whiter and the upper plumage
a shade duller.
I cannot now make out that there is any appreciable constant
difference in size between the sexes, but individual birds
of both vary very greatly in dimensions and weight:—
Length, 8-62 to 9/82 ; expanse, 158 to 169; wing, 4'8 to
5-3 ; tail from vent, 20 to 2 6 ; tarsus, i-C to 1*9; bill from
gape, 0'95 to 1*2 ; weight, 275 to 475 ozs.
Legs and feet coral red ; claws horny blue ; the bill varies—
in some it is blackish, in others plumbeous or dark horny blue, in
one dark greenish slatcy; the irides again have been red brown,
dull red, and crimson, and the orbital ring, gape and skin of
chin vermilion.
THE PLATE is a very fair picture of the bird, though the bright
red at the gape is omitted. I may note that the white
speckling or mottling shown down the front of the breast is a
pictorial effect, intended, I presume, to convey the idea of light
falling on the feathers. The chin and throat are white or whitish
in seme birds (females, I believe), while in others (the old males,
I believe), these parts are the same colour as, though paler than'
the breast; but in all specimens the entire breast is the same'
uniform ferruginous chestnut as the sides of the neck.