2.'50 HALMD,*;. 



birds are very destruclive to the maize crops in Northerii New Soutli Wales and other parts, 

 tearing away the outer paper-like inisk, and strippini; the cob bare. 



There is but little variation, either in size or plumaKe, in a number of adult specimens now 

 before nie ; some, however, have the central portion of the feathers of the mantle purplish-blue, 

 in others the latter colour extends also to marj^ins of the tips of the shorter scapulars. In former 

 years I have occasionally seen these birds lian^int,' up for sale in the poulterer's shops of Sydney 

 and Melbourne. 



Fiom /Mstonville, Richmond Ki\'er, New South Wales, Mr. H. R. Elvery sent me the 

 following notes: — " I'lirpltyn'o iiii-lanniioliis is \ery numerous at Tuclciana Swamp, Richmond 

 Kiver, breeding freely during the summer months, and also after heavy rains in autumn. 

 The long rushes are tiodden down, making a foundation for a nest. I have a set of five eggs 

 taken on the loth March, i8g8. Usually four or five eggs are laid. These birds are 'very 

 destructive on the maize crops grown near the swamp." 



Mr. George Savidge sent me the following notes from Copmanhurst, Upper Clarence, 

 New South Wales : — " Forplivfio inclauonotns is very numerous in the Clarence River District, 

 especially about the swamps belnw Grafton. It is considered a very destructive bird on 

 the crops. Thirty years ago these birds could be seen there in very large flocks, sallying 

 forth into the crops and maize fields at night, and retiring to the svvsmp at day time; they 

 have been destroyed in large numbers. .\t South Grafton I used to get up at daylight, and 

 walking between the maize fields and the South Grafton Swamp, which has since been drained, 

 and is now proclaimed a common, the birds would fiy from the helds to the swamps, and it was 

 a common thing to shoot a couple of dozen or more. The nest is a bulky structure of aquatic 

 herbage and rushes, and fwe eggs is the usual number laid for a sitting." 



Mr. G. H. Keartland sent me the following notes from Melbourne, \'ictoria: — " On all the 

 river Hats and lagoons or swamps in \'ictoria, Porpliyn'o mdanoui'tui may be found. \\. night 

 and early morning they make incursions into the cornfields and gardens, where they play havoc 

 amongst the young corn or cabbage plants. They swim readily, and when walking are 

 continually twitching their tails, like all members of the Rail group. Although shot as game, 

 their flesh has a strong taste." 



Dr. L. Holden wrote as follows from North-western Tasmania :--" On the 30th .\ugust, 

 1887, I found two nests of Porplivrii) nichvioiwtus, ready for eggs, in a large swamp on Circular 

 Head Peninsula. Children living on the edge of the swamp have watched the bird carrying 

 material to one of the nests, and sitting in it. I had to wade in water about eighteen inches 

 deep, and found the nest was in a coarse tussock- of grass. At this place the birds are 

 extraordinarily tame, being numerous and never molested they came about the house almost 

 like domestic fowls. A child caught a young one and brought it to the house, and was followed 

 by the indignant old bird. Another was vigorously attacked by the owner of a nest she robbed. 

 On the loth October, i>!87, I found another nest with two eggs, a small platform of herbage, 

 close to the swamp edge and house, and scarcely concealed by a small grass tussock. On the 

 nth November I found a further nest with five eggs, near the same place; it was built in the 

 main stems of a Tea-tree, the herbage trodden down, and a few pieces of rushes, etc., added. 

 In the same swamp, on the 13th September, 1891, I saw three good sized young ones; this is 

 very early. The old birds were seen to carry off some recently hatched young wild ducks." 



The nests are formed partially by bending and binding to a common centre a bunch of reeds 

 or rushes growing in the water, and building thereon an open structure of reeds, rushes or 

 aquatic herbage. At other times they are formed in coarse grass tussocks, or on the damp 

 ground near water, between two or three Tea-tree stems. Nests found in these situations in 

 the Tea-tree scrub in the IJotanic Gardens, Melbourne, and in similar scrub at Gardener Creek, 



