Ill MMlMtll
Rallina canningi, Tytler.
Vernaoular Names,—[
HIS handsome species, I really think the handsomest
bird of the whole sub-group, is, so far as
is yet known, absolutely confined to the Andaman
Islands.
It may prove to extend to the Nicobars, but it has
not as yet been procured there.
So FAR AS we know, this is chiefly a Woodland Rail, haunting
the neighbourhood of streams and pools bordered by dense
forests.
Captain Wimberley writes:—" This is an extremely shy,
and, I believe, exclusively a forest bird. It certainly never
leaves cover during the day time. It is found either in the
forest itself or in thick secondary scrub adjoining this, and
especially where the ground is swampy or intersected by hill
streams.
"If driven out of cover it will not take wing unless hard pressed,
when its flight is slow and heavy.
" Its food appears to consist of insects and fresh-water fish.
The latter I infer, as some of those I sent you were taken in
snares laid on ground baited with fresh-water shrimps, which
were all eaten.
" I have never heard its call-note, but the man I employed to
snare some of my specimens tells me that its call is very similar
to that of the Andamanese Banded Rail.
" I do not think the bird is at all uncommon here, but it is
rarely met with owing to its shyness and its habit of keeping to
MR. F. A . DEROEPSTORFF kindly sent mc the eggs of this
species, together with the parent bird, with the following note:—
" On the 17th of July a convict (Hanwanta, No. 18,009), who was