200 KALLIIJ.B. 



Mr. Tom Carter wrote from Broome Hill, South-western Australia, as follows : — " A 

 specimen of the Pectoral Kail ( I lypotirnidia pltiUpl>cnsis) was shot by me on the beach, below 

 hif^h water mark, at Point Cloates, North-western Australia, on the 13th October, 1891. A 

 severe drought was prevailing at the time. I also shot one running about in my sheep-drafting 

 yards there on tlie 27th July, njoi. 1 have found remains of dead birds on several occasions, 

 probably having been killed by wild cats. I once saw one K'ept in a cage near Busselton as a 

 rare bird." 



The nest is a saucer-shaped structure, about eight inches across, formed of dried grasses and 

 herbage, built in or near a tussock of grass. In \'ictoria I have frequently found them built close 

 to the ground, between several Tea-tree stems. 



The eggs are usually five or si.K in number for a sitting, but as many as eleven have been 

 found, probably the result of two birds laying in the one nest. They are oval or rounded-oval in 

 form, the shell being close-grained, smooth and lustrous. In ground colour they vary from a 

 creamy-buff to a faint buffy-white, which is usually dotted, spotted and l)lotched with blood-red, 

 purplish-red and similar but fewer underlying markings of different shades of violet-grey, some 

 of which are nearly obsolete. On some specimens the markings are even, on others of irregular 

 shape, and as a rule they predominate on the thicker end, where occasionally a few irregular 

 wavy streaks or hair lines may be found. A set of five eggs in the Australian Museum Collection, 

 taken by " Cobby," an aboriginal, at Copmanhurst, Upper Clarence District, on the 19th May, 

 1904, measures : — Length (A) 1-44 x fi inches; (B) i'42 x 1-13 inches; (C) 1-38 x i'i2 

 inches; (D) f43 x fi3 inches; (E) 1-35 x 1-12 inches. A set of six, taken in the same 

 locality by Mr. George Savidge on the 7th November, 1904, measures : — Length (A) 1-37 x 

 1-07 inches; (I!) 1-37 x 1-07 inches; (C) 1-35 x 1-07 inches; ( D) 1-37 x 1-07 inches; (E) 

 1-3 X foi inches; (F) i'37 x 1-07 inches. 



The young birds, when just hatched, are covered with black down. When about a week 

 or ten days old the down assumes a brownish-black hue, the white feathers, barred with black, 

 first appearing on the sides of the body, while those on the thighs and lower sides of the back 

 are fulvous indistinctly crossed with narrow blackish-brown bars. 



October until the end of January is the principal breeding season in Eastern Australia, but 

 odd nests may be found throughout the year. In North-western Australia Mr. G. A. Heartland, 

 while a member of the Calvert Exploring Expedition, noted two heavily incubated sets of eggs, 

 near the junction of the Fitzroy and Margaret Rivers, in February, 1897. 



Rallina tricolor. 



RED-NECKED RAIL. 



Rallina tricolor, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc, 18.58, p. 188; Gould. Suppl. Bds. Austr., fol. Vol., pi. 78 ; 

 (1869) Sliarpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXIIl., p, 79 (1894) ; id., Ifand-1. Bds., Vol. I., 

 p. 100 (1899). 



Adult malk. — Gmcral colour above, iiichidiiuj the wings, olic-broicn, the upper parts of the 

 back sliyhtly tinged with dull olive-green, the inner webs of the quills crossed with thrre or four pale 

 buffy-n'hite bars ; iipper tail-coreris and tail-feathers broron ivith a rufous shade; entire liead, neck, 

 mantle and upper breast reddish-chestnut, becoming paler on the chiii and throat ; remainder of the 

 uiider surface olive-brouJii, the centre of tJie lower breast, abdomen, binder lail-corerts and oiUer sides of 

 the thighs more or less distiiictly barred ^vith brownish-buff' ; under surface of the qu,ills silky greyish- 



