GRALLATORES. 327 



about like fowls. At last they increased so mucli in number 

 as to swarm on all the waters and creeks, doing great damage 

 to the crops in their neighbourhood. They took the entire 

 possession of the creek near my house, and broke down and 

 wholly destroyed about an acre and a quarter of wheat as if 

 cattle had bedded on it. They made their first appearance in 

 November, and left in the beginning of March, gradually 

 retiring northwards as they had advanced." 



"In the autumn of 1854," says Mr. Elsey, "the stations 

 about the Mackenzie were besieged by swarms of this species. 

 They remained some time, then disappeared, and not a 

 single specimen appeared there for certainly the next three 

 years." 



I frequently met with the bird myself during my journey 

 into the interior of New South Wales; it was tolerably 

 abundant on the banks of the Mokai in the month of 

 December 1839, but not in such numbers as particularly to 

 attract my attention. When I first saw it I was much struck 

 with its grotesque appearance, as it strutted along the bank 

 of the river with its tail quite erect like that of a domestic 

 fowl. Although the herbage on the river-sides was very 

 scanty, and the plains were so parched that scarcely a blade 

 of grass was to be seen, it readily eluded pursuit by its 

 amazing powers of running, and secreting itself beneath the 

 roots of the large trees or the shelving of the bank. I never 

 saw it take wing, and I believe that it rarely resorts to flight 

 for security. 



It breeds in November, the nest, which is formed of dead 

 soft grasses and rushes, being placed on the ground among 

 the long grass-like rushes of the river-side. The eggs are 

 seven in number, of a cream-colour, thinly sprinkled witli 

 irregularly shaped spots of chestnut-red, some of which appear 

 as if beneath the surface of the shell : they are an inch and a 

 half long by one inch and an eighth broad. 



The stomach is extremely thick and muscular; and the 



