NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



749 



first saw this rare and beautiful bird, and 1 shall never forget it. I had 

 made my way into the middle of a lagoon about ten acres in extent, and 

 was sitting well out of sight among tall reeds ten or twelve feet high, 

 waiting for ducks to alight upon a small sheet of open water ; time, about 

 simset. Suddenly a Tabuan Water Crake made its appearance from 

 among the reeds, having not the slightest idea of my presence (for I, had 

 been sitting motionless for some time), and gave me an opportunity of 

 observing it feeding on insects, apparently found on the siuface of the 

 water, upon which it moved with the greatest ease, finding plenty of 

 footing upon the hair-like water grasses, &c., which float on the surface. 

 I often thought of the bird, and longed to see another with a view 

 to procuring it and having it identified. Twelve years elapsed, 

 during which time 1 made lepeated attempts to get a specimen, but 

 without success, till one morning in October, soon after daylight, when 

 passing- another lagoon, I heard a sound, and on nearer approach felt 

 certain it was some bird among the tall reeds and bulnishes. Fortunately 

 a neighboviring tree, up which I scrambled, afl'orded me a good outlook, 

 and after sitting veiy quietly for something like twenty minutes or .so, 

 the noise was repeated and I saw for the second time the Tabuan Crake, 

 for an instant only, at an opening in the rashes. I subsequently 

 secured a fine specimen, shooting it fi'om the same tree-top." 



Gould did not succeed in finding a nest ; but, as he conjectui'ed, the 

 eggs differ from those of the typical Porzance, and also from those of the 

 true Rails. 



The late Mr. T. H. Potts described, an egg of this Crake from a salt 

 marsh near Invercargill, New Zealand, 1874. 



When I described and figured my first eggs of this species, nine years 

 afterwards — and, ciu'iously enough, from the same locality, — I was not 

 aware of Mr. Potts's previous desciiption. A second example I received 

 from Tasmania through Mr. A. E. Brent, who also kindly supplied a 

 description of the nest, which was fovmd during November. In the 

 appendix to " Catalogue " of Nests and Eggs of Australian Museum 

 (1890), a nest and single <^g^, found b}- Dr. Metcalfe on Norfolk Island, 

 are described. 



582. — PoLioLiMNAS CINEREU8, Vieillot. — (576) 

 Erythra quadristrigata, Horsfield. 



WHITE-BROWED CRAKE. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vi., pi. 8i. 



Re-jerence. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxiii., p. 130. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Ramsay : Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 388 

 (1868); Kiitter; Cabanis' Journal fiir Ornithologie (1S84-6) ; 

 Campbell : Victorian Naturalist (1889) ; North : Austn. Mus. 

 Cat., pi. 16, fig. 7 (1889). 



Gfographical Disti-ihution. — Northern Territory and Queensland; 

 also the majority of the Pacific Islands, throughout the Austro-Malayan 

 Archipelago and Philippines to the Malayan Peninsula. 



