POIi/ANA. I'l.g 



1-Iuntin<4 for the nests of this bird is not enjoyable sport, even to a schoolboy. If the water 

 was shallow, as it was in Albert Park, not more than twelve or eighteen inches deep, there was 

 generally a foot or more of slimy black ooze one would sink into at every step. The nests were 

 slightly concave structures, usually built at the bottom of a clump of reeds, and within two or 

 three feet of the water, and were formed of the dry sheaths of Tyflia ani^ustifidin and other aquatic 

 plants, and measured about four inches in diameter by about three quarters of an inch in depth. 

 Mr. S. Robinson informed me that nests he found in a swamp on Buckiinguy Station, in New 

 South Wales, were built at the bottom of thick bushes growing in the water, and he found them 

 by llushing the bird from them, and observing either a narrow run as an entrance at the bottom 

 of the bust), or by pulling the bush open at the top. 



Tlie eggs are usually tive or six in number for a sitting, occasionally seven, and vary from 

 sw^ollen and elongate ovals to a thick and lengthened ellipse, the shell being close-grained and 

 its surface smooth and lustrous, and \ary in colour from pale brown tinged with olive to dark 

 olive-brown ; some are entirely devoid of markmgs, others have numerous short flecks or streaks 

 of a slightly darker shade of the ground colour. There is but little variation in a number of 

 sets now before me; it is chiefly in the shape and size. .\ set in .Mr. Malcolm Harrison's 

 collection, taken on tiie jth November, 18S9, between Bridgewater and .\ew Norfolk, on the 

 Derwent River, in Southern Tasmania, measures: — Length (A) i-i2 x 07S inches; (B) 1-07 

 X 07(3 inches; (C) 1-07 x o-8 inches: (Dj i-it x 07S inches; (E) 1-12 x 075 inches. A 

 set of five in the .\ustralian Museum Collection, taken by Mr. S. Ivobinson on Buckiinguy 

 Station, New South Wales, on the ist November, 1903, measures as follows: — Length (.\) 

 1-15 X 0-85 inches; (B) 1-07 x o-8 inches; (C) i-i x 079 inches; (D) i-i^ x 0-82 inches; 

 (E) I-I2 X 0-83 inches. Another set of four taken in the same locality on the following day 

 measures :— Length (A) 1-07 x 077 inches; (B) 1-05 x 077 inches ; (C) i-o6 x 076 inches; 

 (D) 1-02 X 074 inches. Two eggs taken from different sets, found near Albert Park Lake, St. 

 Kilda, X'ictoria, in December, 1884, measure as follows: — Length (.\) 1-12 x 077 inches; (B) i 

 X 078 inches. 



Mr. H. E. S. Jeboult brought me, on the 19th December, 191 1, a young live bird in the 

 down, caught by his Setter the day before at Botany. In his opinion it was about three days 

 old. It was covered with black down, and had an indication of the black barred pale buff feathers 

 on the flanks; bill dull yellow, the extreme base of the upper mandible, and the basal half of 

 the lower mandible black ; legs and feet dark greyish-olive ; iris black. The most remarkable 

 feature about it was that while it only stood two iiiches and a quarter in height, its toes were of 

 immense size, the middle one measuring 1-23 inches. .Also two young birds about three weeks 

 old, traces of down still appearing here and there. These birds differed from the adults principally 

 in havmg the sides of the face, neck, and all the under surface pale bull. All these birds 

 were caught by his Setter while in the act of diving under the water, and it speaks much for 

 the tender mouth of the dog that it could capture, unhurt in any way, a young bird in down. 

 On the same day it also caught an adult Poi'saiia immaculata, which Mr. Jeboult presented to the 

 Trustees. 



October until the end of January constitutes the usual breeding season, but in unusually 

 wet seasons nests containing fresh eggs have been found at the latter end of February. 



Porzana immaculata. 



SPOTLESS WATER CRAKE. 



Ralhis tahuensis, Gmel., Syst. Nat., Tom. L, p. 717 (part) (1788). 



Crex plumbea, Gray, in Gritiith's ed. Ciivier, Vol. IIT., p. 410 (part) (1829). 



