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Darin;,' the unusuaily wet autumn and winter of iS.Sg, Mr. Bennett noted a brood of recently 

 liatclied younf:,' on tiie ist of August, on Vandemliali Station, near Booli.gal. He al^o found two 

 nests on the loth August, placed in low dense I'olyf^onum bashes, some six inches above the 

 water, one containing six, the other eight eggs. On the 4th October, iSgo, he found a nest 

 with nine eggs. 



From Melliinirne, Victoria, Mr. (i. .A. Keartland wrote: — "Although I have found Tfilmnvx 

 vcntralis in the Northern Territory, North-western Australia, and New South Wales, the only 

 parts of Victoria in which they appear regularly are near the Murray River, and about Kerang 

 and Swan Hill. On two occasions they came as far south as Melton. I think- it was in iSSi); 

 heavy rain fell in (Jctober, and forme I a number of small pools in the crops on Mr. C. Raleigh's 

 farm. Within a week hundreds of these birds arrived, and soon started laying. The nests 

 were scattered round e\ery waterhole, and in one afternoon two boys gathered a bucketful of 

 eggs. This species seems to follow heavy rain, and when the water dries up in one district 

 they move to another. In North-western .\ustralia I searched in vain for specimens, hut two 

 days after the tropical rain came I could have shot hundreds. When running they look like 

 little bantam fowls, and avoid (lying as much as possible. At all the dry claypans passed by 

 the Calvert Exploring lixpedition, in North-western Australia, we found tlie footprints and 

 feathers of the birds, although the ground was then dry and hard." 



From Adelaide, South i\ustralia, IJr. A. M. Morgan sent me the following notes in January, 

 191 1 : — " .'l7;Vw/'(77«);n'.v ri-;/i'r(!//5 are irregular migrants to the .Adelaide District; in some years 

 the birds come down in great numbers, and in other years not one is to be seen. In October, 

 1895, they came about Laura in thousands, and were so tame that they entered my back yard 

 and fed with the fowls, but they did not breed in the district. A pair built yearly for some time en 

 the Torrens. at the • Reedl" ds,' but were probably killed, for they have not been seen for the past 

 two years. The nest I saw there was built on a Willow branch, which had fallen into the water. 

 In 1908 they bred in numbers in a wheat crop at Morphetville, near Glenelg." 



From Port .Augusta, South .Australia, Dr. A. Chenery wiote me as follows in July, 1901 : — 

 " After rain in February this year, there was an early breeding season. On Arcoona Station, 

 one hundred and fifty miles north-west from here, I took two sets of eggs of Tnhoiivx vtittralis, 

 containing se\'en and nine eggs respectively." 



iSIr. Tom Carter wrote as follows from Broome Hill, Western Australia : — " In North- 

 western .Australia Tnhoitvy vcntrahs occurred in great numbers in good seasons, tlie bank's of 

 pools and creeks being ali\e with them, as long as water and food were abundant. In Mav, 

 1897, when heavy floods broke up a great drought lasting more than two years, I had to 

 stay two days at Geraldton. Hearing that immense numbers of ' Swamp Hens' were in the 

 neighbourliood, another passenger and myself borrowed guns, and having hired a sullcy proceeded 

 to drive out towards the Chapman Ri\'er. Before we were clear of the outskirts of the town, 

 we saw hundreds running on the road and crossing it, to and from the scrub on each side, 

 and their numbers increased as we proceeded. .Arrived at the Chapman Ri\er we went 

 to some cultivation paddocks, which were literally ali\e with the birds, apparently eating 

 off the young corn as it grew. In July, 1899, they bred in bunches of rushes on the edge 

 of pools, on my inland station near Point Cloates. Several nests were found containing eggs, 

 the largest clutch being seven. On the 3rd .August a nest containing three eggs was found, 

 and many young in down seen. .About twelve of these birds were at the stock tank, near my 

 house at Broome Hill, South-western Australia, from 19th June, 1907, until October. Two 

 were seen on the 28th October, igo8." 



On Cobborah Station, in company with Mr. Thos. I'. .Austin, several nests were found 

 with eggs during my stay there in October, 1909. One, containing three eggs, was built in a 



