644 THE BIRDS OF LORD HOWE AND NORFOLK ISLANDS, 



It frequents a few reedy patches in the settled part of the 

 Island. I saw only a single bird during my visit; but was 

 informed by Mr J. B. Waterhouse that it bred there. 



At Norfolk Island it is found in the Taro patches growing in 

 the creeks and in the vicinity of the Mission dam. A clutch of 

 ei»ht eggs, forwarded to me by a young collector who took them^ 

 on the 5th December, 1908, are of the usual type, but of a rather 

 reddish-yellow ground, owing doubtless to the red soil. Dimen- 

 sions : (a), 1-56 X 1-16; (6), 1-50 xM6; (c), 1-49 x M6; (d) 1-46 

 X 116;^ (6/), 1-45 X M4; (g) 1-4 x M2; (h) 1-4 x 111. 



52a(M). 5.0cYDR0Mus sylvestris Sclater. 



Rufous-winged Moorhen; Wood Hen(L.H-I.). 



Ocydromiis sylvestris Sclater, P.Z.S. 1869, p. 472; Norih, 

 'Nests and Eggs,' p.414; Etheridge, 'Lord Howe Island,' p. 13; 

 North, Rec. Aust. Mus. i., p.37(1890). 



Hah. — Lord Howe Island. 



It was not my good fortune to see any specimens of this bird,, 

 which is so closely allied to the New Zealand Weka. Its habitat 

 is amongst the rugged and almost inaccessible parts of Lord 

 Howe Island. North says"^^: — "Here the rough character of the 

 country, consisting of huge boulders of granite p basalt] almost 

 hidden in a dense and luxuriant mass of subtropical ^^egetation, 

 affords it a secure retreat." A nest found in October, 1889, 'at 

 the head of the Erskine Valley " (a high ridge connecting Mount 

 Lidgbird with Mount Gower) " consisted merely of a depression 

 in a thick debris of fallen leaves, under the shelter of a low bush. 

 The eggs, four in number, vary in shape from ovals to lengthened 

 ovals, being slightly pointed at one end, and are of a dull white, 

 with minute dots and large irregular shaped D)arkings of light 

 chestnut-red more or less scattered over the surface of the shell, 

 obsolete markings of the same colour predominating towards the 

 larger end. They are not unlike very large specimens of Hupo- 

 tcenidia philippensis, . , . but the markings are paler and 



* Nests and Eggs, p. 414. 



