BROLGA. 189 



covered with a membrane ; an obsolete groove can be traced in the lower mandible. 

 The culmen is longer than the head, little shorter than the tail, and more than half 

 the length of the metatarsus. The head is denuded of feathers save on the ear- 

 coverts. The wing is long, with the inner secondaries longer and resolving them- 

 selves into drooping plumes. The tail, composed of twelve feathers, is more than 

 one -third the length of the wing. The legs are very long, as also the exposed tibia, 

 while the very long metatarsus is scutellate, and is equal to half the length of the 

 wing. The toes are long with no webbing between ; hind-toe present and raised 

 above the level of the others ; the middle toe is about half the length of the culmen. 



130. Mathewsena rubictmda. BROLGA. 



Gould, Vol. VI., pi. 48 (pt. xxx.), March 1st, 1848. Mathews, Vol. III., pt. 4, pi. 176, Dec. 

 31st, 1913. 



Ardea rubicunda Perry, Arcana, pt. vi. [pi. 22], June 1810 : Botany Bay, New South Wales. 



Grus antarctica Illiger, Abhandl. Ak. Wissen Munch., 1811-12, p. 230, 1816: New South 



Wales. 



Grus australasianus Gould, Birds Austr., pt. xxx. (Vol. VI., pi. 48), March 1st, 1848 : New 



South Wales. 



Mathewsia rubicunda argentea Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 227, Jan. 31st, 1912 : 



Derby, North-west Australia. 



DISTRIBUTION. Australia generally. Not Tasmania. 



Adult male. General colour above and below silvery -grey, with pale edgings to 

 the feathers of the upper-parts ; bastard-wing, primary -co verts and quills dark 

 brown ; lower throat covered with hair-like feathers ; bill and crown of head olive- 

 green ; papillae on the sides of the face and the back of the neck red ; iris yellow ; 

 tarsi and feet brown. Total length 1,220 mm. ; culmen 163, wing 580, tail 210, 

 tarsus 290. 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male ; culmen 150, wing 555. 



Young. Still retaining a portion of the downy plumage. Differs from the 

 adult by having the head covered with pale rufous feathers, becoming paler and 

 inclining to buff on the upper hind -neck, the grey ear-coverts only slightly indicated. 



Immature. Differs from the adult in being darker and the feathers of the mantle 

 edged with brown. 



Nest. None made. 



Eggs. Clutch, two ; surface minutely pitted ; ground-colour creamy -white, 

 sparingly covered with spots of brown and lavender ; axis 84-91 mm., diameter 

 60 to 62. 



Breeding-season. September to March. 



Distribution and forms. Australia only, a straggler once recorded from Central 

 Asia ! Two well-marked subspecies are recognised : M . r. rubicunda (Perry) from 

 the East, and M . r. argentea (Mathews) from the North-west, a smaller and much 

 paler silvery-grey race. 



ORDER EALLI. 



This order, as recognised by us, comprises three suborders, Rails proper, Finfeet 

 and Grebes. All are small to medium wading or swimming birds, though some are 

 mainly land birds, all three forms being seen among the Rails. The bill is of varied 

 shapes, the body generally slender, rarely stout, the wings short and the legs stout, 

 sometimes peculiarly developed for swimming purposes. They all seem to have 

 a strong tendency to Sightlessness, which is seen in many cases acting now through 

 isolation. A few semi -flightless forms still exist, some flightless ones are only 

 recently extinct, and quite a few fossil flightless forms are known. Rails and Grebes 

 are of world -wide distribution, while the Finfeet occur only in tropical America and 

 Africa. 



