GRALLATORES. 341 



thread the reeds with greater activity ; hence, like the last 

 species, it is seldom to be canght sight of unless the greatest 

 vigilance be "exerted in search of it. 



I am indebted to the Rev. T. J. Ewing, D.D., of Tasmania, 

 for the nest and eggs of this bird ; the former is a flat struc- 

 ture formed of various kinds of grasses, and the latter are four 

 or five in number, of a nearly uniform brownish olive, about 

 one inch in length by three-quarters of an inch in breadth. 



Head and back of the neck rusty brown, with a stripe of 

 blackish brown down the centre of each feather ; feathers of 

 the back, scapularies, and secondaries brownish black mar- 

 gined with rusty brown, and with an oblong stripe or mark 

 of white, interrupted in the middle with black ; wing-coverts 

 rusty brown, a few of them marked on their inner webs like 

 the scapularies ; primaries brown, two or three of the inner- 

 most with a mark or marks of white at the tip ; tail dark 

 brown, fringed with rusty brown ; face, throat, chest and 

 upper part of the abdomen grey ; lower part of the abdomen 

 and flanks blackish grey, crossed by broad irregular bands of 

 grey ; bill and feet olive-brown. 



Total length 6 inches ; bill f ; wing 3 ; tail IJ ; tarsi 1. 



Sp. 575. PORZANA? TABUENSIS. 



Tabuan Water Crake. 



Tabuan Rail, Lath. Gen. Syn., torn. iii. p. 235. 

 Rallus tabuensis, Gmel. Edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 717. 

 Ortygometra tabuensis, G. R. Gray, Voy.of Ereb. and Terr., Birds, p. 14. 

 Corethrura tabuensis, G. R. Gray, Gen. of Birds, vol. iii. p. 595, and 



App. 527. 

 Gallinula immaculata, Swains. An. in Menag., p. 337. 

 War-ra-jah, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Australia. 

 Little Swamp Hen of the Colonists. 



Porzana ? immaculata, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vi. 

 pi. 82. 



I believe I am correct in stating that this species is uni- 



