202 Fletcher, Field Notes on the Spotless Crake. f ^' 



Emu 

 Apiil 



over a radius of two miles, taking the school swamp as a 

 centre. 



The illustration of nest and eggs (three) of the Spotless Crake 

 was procured for me through the kindness of Mr. A. W. Swindells, 

 of Hobart. The photographer was Mr. J. W. Beattie. 



Notes on the Spotless Crake and Western Ground' 



Parrot. 



By F. Lawson Whitlock, R.A.O.U., Chiltern, Tudor Siding, 

 Denmark Line, W.A. 



Our rainy season commences as a rule early in April, the annual 

 fall being 36 inches and upwards, and the country, generally 

 speaking, is well supplied with swamps and wet ground. During 

 the months of January, February, and March, however, our 

 climate is usually hot and dry, when all surface water quickly 

 disappears. The haunts of the Spotless or Tabuan Crake {Por- 

 zana immaculata) and other semi-aquatic birds are subject, 

 therefore, to a certain amount of local change. 



In the wet months — and these include the breeding season — 

 pairs are more frequently met with in what may reasonably be 

 termed flooded ground rather than around the large and more or 

 less permanent swamps. My first experience of the Spotless 

 Crake occurred in the hot, dry weather, when I picked up a chick 

 only a few days old in a wheel-rut near Torbay Junction, about 

 10 miles west of Albany. Probably others of the brood were 

 concealed in the long grass close at hand. This was in March, 

 1905. The general appearance of this newly-hatched chick was 

 black, with just a tinge of deep brown in the thick down clothing 

 the body. The legs, feet, and beak, too, were black, with just 

 enough gloss to suggest they had been black-leaded. 



Again, in December, 191 1, I was engaged in ornithological 

 work within a couple of miles of Albany, when I was shown a pair 

 of rough skins of the Spotless Crake. These were the remains 

 of birds brought in from a neighbouring thicket by a cat. At 

 the time of my visit to this particular locality, a third example 

 was brought home by the same cat ; I secured this, practically 

 undamaged. 



The following year a pair of small Crake's eggs, from a clutch 

 of four (unblown), were given to me. The identity of these eggs, 

 which are a little larger than typical eggs of the Spotless Crake, 

 is not absolutely certain, however. The same season, in searching 

 for nests of the Grass-Bird [Megalurus striatiis), I heard peculiar 

 but Crake-like notes issuing from a large clump of reeds. I enticed 

 the creatures out by imitating the notes as well as I could, and had 

 a good view of a Spotless Crake a few feet away. I could clearly 

 distinguish the peculiar pinkish-red of the irides. 



In November, 1913, I had occasion to camp on an extensive 



