550 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant on Birds 



rabbits ; and this, after the wholesale importation of ferrets, 

 weasels, and stoats. 



" Three young ones are the most I have seen in one family 

 in Dusky Sound, but I once found four eggs in a nest at Te 

 Anau Lake before the introduction of ferrets, and in the 

 ' grasshopper-days ' I have counted as many as six eggs in 

 a nest on the Middle Dome near Lumsden/' 



Three eggs from Dusky Sound are of the usual type, but 

 one of them is somewhat longer than any of those in the 

 British Museum Collection and measures 25 by 1*58 inches. 



5. OcYBROMUS BRACHYPTERUS (Lafl'.) . 



Ocydromus brachypterus Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiii. 

 p. 67 (1894). 



a. Immature. Dusky Sound, Otago District, South 

 Island. 



b,c. Adult. South Island, Jan. 1901. 



Two adult specimens of the Black Wood-hen have the 

 plumage, especially of the upper parts, very deep black, each 

 feather being faintly edged with dark rufous ; an immature 

 bird has the chest and wings spotted with rufous. 



6. Ocydromus scotti Grant. 



Ocydromus scotti Grant, Bull. B. O. C. xv. no. cxvi. p. 78 

 (1905). 



Adult mate (type of the species). Most nearly allied to 

 0. earli G. R. Gray, but may be at once distinguished by its 

 much smaller size, and by having the general colour of the 

 plumage of the upper parts chestnut and black. Feathers 

 of the top of the head, hind-neck, mantle, inner scapulars, 

 and innermost secondaries black, widely margined on the 

 sides with chestnut ; primary and secondary quills, wing- 

 coveits, and outer scapulars black, with bars or wedge-shaped 

 marks of chestnut along the margins; marginal coverts 

 uniform reddish-brown ; lower back and rump uniform dark 

 chestnut-brown ; upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers black, 

 the terminal half margined and the basal half barred with 

 chestnut ; a short whitish eyebrow-stripe extending from 

 the lores to above the eye; chin, cheeks, and throat greyish ; 



