GRALLATORES. 339 



Head and neck ash-grey ; all the upper surface, wings and 

 tail olive ; breast and all the under surface greyish chestnut ; 

 bill yellow at the base, horn-colour at the tip ; legs and feet 

 brown. 



Total length 1 9 inches ; bill2j; wing 9^; tail 6 ; tarsi 2^. 



Both sexes will doubtless be hereafter found to possess a 

 similar kind of plumage. 



Genus PORZANA, VieilL 



The Porzance inhabit Europe, Africa, India and Australia ; 

 the species inhabiting the latter country are very similarly 

 marked to those inhabiting India and Europe. The form, 

 but not the same species, also occurs in America. 



Sp. 573. PORZANA FLUMINEA, Gould. 



Spotted Water Crake. 

 Porzana fluminea, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part x. p. 139. 



Porzana fluminea, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vi. pi. 79. 



This species, like its representative in the British Islands 

 {Rallus porzana, Linn.), inhabits morasses, reed-beds, and the 

 neighbourhood of rivers clothed with dense herbage ; hence it 

 is seldom to be seen unless the greatest trouble and labour be 

 taken to hunt it out from its hiding-place. The uniform grey 

 tint of its breast and under surface, and its smaller size, are 

 characters by which it may at once be distinguished from 

 the European species. 



The Spotted Water Crake is an inhabitant of Tasmania, 

 South Australia and New South Wales, to which portions of 

 Australia it would seem to be confined. My stay in the 

 country was too short to afford me opportunities of thoroughly 

 investigating its habits, or of gaining any precise information 

 respecting its nidification ; but it is natural to suppose that in 



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