Slaty-legged Crake   Rallina eurizonoides

 Etymology:

• Rallina : Latinized form of German ralle meaning rail
• Eurizonoides: Greek word – resembling Rallina

Vernacular Names: Tibetan: Awal-luk-si

Distribution in India: Resident of Himalayas from Uttarakhand to Sikkim

Description: Size of 21–28 cm; wt. of male is118–128 g , wt. of female is 99–180 g , average wingspan is 47·5 cm. Both the sexes are alike. It has a flattened body laterally to allow easier passage through the undergrowth. It has long toes and a short tail. It has a brown back, chestnut head and breast, and strong black-and-white barring on the flanks, belly and undertail. The throat is white, the bill is yellowish, and the legs are green. It has darker, browner upperparts, white bars on wings confined to inner webs of remiges and a few coverts. The juveniles are dark brown above and below, although they have the belly barring and white throat.

Habitat: It Inhabits forests, well-wooded areas and dense scrub, forest edges, forest floor inside dense patches of remnant original forest vegetation, banks of forest streams, and long grass with dense bushes, paddy and taro fields, and from mangroves. It is found up to 1600 m

Food Habits: It eats worms, molluscs, insects, and shoots and seeds of marsh plants. It is partly nocturnal.

Breeding habits:  They breed in Jun–Sept during SW monsoon. They nest in densest forest as well as more open scrub. The nest is an untidy pad of dead leaves, grass and thin twigs, with slight central depression; built on ground in clumps of bamboo or masses of tangled creepers, or on top of tree stumps. They lay a clutch of 4–8 eggs. Both the sexes incubate eggs and tend the young.