324 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Sp. 565. TRIBONYX MORTIERII, Du Bus. 



Mortier's Tribonyx. 



Tribonyx mortierii, Du Bus, Bull. Acad. Sci. Brux., torn. vii. p. 315, pi. 

 Brachyptrallus rallo'ides, Lafres. ? 

 Native Hen of the Colonists. 



Tribonyx mortieri, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. vi. pi. 71. 



This bird is rather abundantly dispersed over the southern 

 parts of Australia and Tasmania, but from the extreme shyness 

 of its disposition, and the almost inaccessible nature of the 

 situations it frequents, it is seldom seen by ordinary observers. 

 The localities it affects are marsh lands and the sides of rivers. 

 It was daily seen by me during my stay on the Government de- 

 mesne at New Norfolk, in Tasmania, where it frequently left its 

 sedgy retreats and walked about the paths and other parts of 

 the garden, with its tail erect like the Common Hen ; even 

 here, however, the greatest circumspection and quietude were 

 necessary to obtain a sight of it, for the slightest noise or 

 movement excited its suspicions, and in an instant it vanished 

 in the most extraordinary manner into some thicket, from 

 which it did not again emerge until all apparent cause for 

 alarm was past. 



The sternum and pectoral muscles of this bird are but 

 feebly developed in proportion to its bulk, and it consequently 

 rarely resorts to flight ; on the other hand, the legs and 

 thighs are extremely large, and hence its power of running is 

 very great, and upon this it mainly depends for security from 

 molestation. Its habits and general manners are very similar 

 to those of the Moorhen {Gallinula chloropus) of Europe, but 

 it does not dive or swim so much as that bird. It is very 

 easily captured with a common horsehair noose, by which 

 means some of my specimens were procured. 



The male is about three pounds in weight ; and the sto- 

 machs of those I examined were extremely thick and nmscular, 

 and contained aquatic plants and insects, gravel, &c. 



