754 NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



Dui-ing a season (1892) of great drought in Central Australia, when 

 Ibises were so plentiful in the soutliern parts of Victoria, a few Black- 

 tailed Native Hens appeared on the plains near Melton, about twenty 

 miles from Melbourne. 



Usual breeding season October to January or Febmary. Dr. Ramsay 

 states, when the back country (of Now South Wales) is flooded, these 

 birds overrun it, breeding almost any time of the year. I had two eggs 

 from a clutch of eight taken at Cooper's Creek, 20th June (1887). 



Mr. T. Carter informs me they were also laying at Point Cloates, 

 mid- winter (Jvily), 1899 and 1900. A beautiful set of eggs in my collec- 

 tion is from Mr. W. White's (Reedbeds) preserve, where these Native 

 Hens breed freely and are exceedingly tame. The young in down are 

 jet black, and can swim like durkliugs. The old birds feed their young 

 on bits of thistle, dock, &c. 



586. G.\LLINULA TENEBROS.\, Goulcl. (567) 



BLACK MOOR HEN. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fnl., vol. vi., pi. 73. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxiii., p. 168. 



Previous Descriptions of Egg!. — Campbell : Southern Science Record 

 (1S83 and 18S5), also Nests and Eggs Austn. Birds, pi. 2, fig. 

 567 (.883). 



(I'ldt/rii iihirtil Dis/rihiitioii . — Avistralia in general; also New Guinea. 



Nest. — Slightly concave on the top, composed of dead flags or 

 rushes, sometimes with twigs added ; lined with the paper-like bark of 

 teartree (Me/aleura), and placed in water among mshes, (fee, or at the 

 base of tea^trees. Dimensions over all, about 12 inches; height (from 

 the water) about 12 inches. 



£'^'/('/.«.- -Clutch, eight to eleven; oval or elliptical in shape; texture 

 of shell coarse ; surface glossy ; colour, varies from pale-stone to deep 

 warm-stone, blotched and spotted with chestnut and purplish-brown. 

 Dimensions in inches of .selected pairs : A (1) 1-98 x l-.'37, (2) 1-98 x 1-4 ; 

 B (1) 1-96 X 1-33, (2) 1-8 x 1-34. (Plate 19.) 



Ohxenatinm. — This interesting Moor Hen is found throughout most 

 parts of Australia, in situations conducive to its habits, namely, swampy 

 localities, and especially tiic sedgy margins of lakes, rivers, and arms of 

 tho sea. 



My own experience among these l)ir(ls wa.s of the most pleasant kiM<l, 

 when my companion, Mr. F. Symonds, and I e^im])i(l on the tea-tree 

 shores of Lake King, Gippsland, Cin-istmas, 1884, in the hope of 

 finding a nest. 



