SLATE-BREASTED EAIL. 191 



Small Rails with long slender bills, short rounded wings, short tail and short 

 legs and long toes. 



The bill is long and laterally compressed, generally decurved and slender ; 

 the culmen ridge is a little flattened and does not develop any frontal plate ; a 

 very long deep groove extends more than half the length of the upper mandible 

 and the nostrils are linear pervious apertures, placed near the base of the culmen, 

 parallel and adjacent to the lower edge of the mandible ; the under mandible is 

 a little curved and slender, the rami enclosing a very narrow space and merging 

 near the tip forming no gonys ; there is only a minute shallow groove on sides of 

 lower mandible near the base ; the culmen is longer than the tarsus. The wing is 

 short and rounded, the first primary short, less than the fifth, the second usually 

 the longest ; the inner secondaries long, very little shorter than the longest primaries. 

 The legs are short, the tarsus regularly scutellated in front and behind, the scutes 

 separated on the sides by rows of small hexagonal scutellae ; the middle toe longest, 

 and the inner shorter than the outer, claws long, thin and little curved, the hind-toe 

 long. The tail is composed of twelve soft feathers, rounded in shape, and less than 

 half the length of the wing. 



Coloration scalloped dark brown and black above, brownish-grey below ; 

 flanks barred, black and white. 



131. Rallus pectoralis. SLATE-BREASTED RAIL. 



Gould, Vol. VI., pi. 77 (pt. xxxiii.), Dec. 1st, 1848. Mathews, Vol. I., pt. 4, pi. 46, Aug. 9th, 

 1911. 



pectoralis Temminck et Laugier, Planch. Color. d'Ois., 88 e livr. (Vol. V., opp. pi. 523), 

 May 14th, 1831: New South Wales. 



Rallus brachipus Swainson, Anim. in Menag., Dec. 31st, 1837, p. 336 : Tasmania. 

 Rallus lewinii, Swainson, ib. 



Rallus pectoralis clelandi Mathews, Birds Austr., Vol. I., pt. 4, p. 189, Aug. 9th, 1911 : West 

 Australia. 



DISTRIBUTION. South Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia 

 and South-west Australia. 



Adult male. General colour above black, all the feathers broadly margined 

 with olive-brown, including the mantle, back, upper tail-coverts, and tail ; scapulars 

 black, barred with white ; lesser wing-coverts olive-brown ; median and greater 

 coverts blackish, narrowly barred with white these white bars are not always 

 continuous across the feathers, but only represented by a short bar on each web ; 

 bastard-wing, primary -co verts, quills, uniform dark brown, the long inner secondaries 

 barred with white on the outer webs ; tail-feathers black, margined with olive-brown ; 

 feathers of the head and hind-neck black margined with chestnut ; fore-head, 

 eyebrow, and sides of neck bright chestnut ; cheeks, throat, and breast grey with 

 a brownish tinge, becoming whitish on the chin ; remainder of the under-surface, 

 including the sides of the body black, barred with white, not so sharply defined on 

 the thighs ; vent and under tail-coverts tinged with sandy-buff ; axillaries and 

 under wing-coverts blackish, slightly tipped with white ; bill brownish-red ; feet 

 flesh colour, becoming darker about the toes ; iris hazel. Total length 210 mm. ; 

 culmen 33, wing 103, tail 45, tarsus 29. 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male but differs in being smaller and in 

 having the breast almost pure grey. Total length 203 mm. ; culmen 33, wing 93, 

 tail 41, tarsus 26. 



Immature female. Differs from the adult female in having a darker appearance ; 

 the absence of chestnut on the head, hind-neck, and sides of neck ; fore-neck and 

 sides of neck blackish, like the under-surface of body, showing only traces of white 

 cross-bars on the lower flanks ; throat pale grey like the adult ; also paler on the 

 middle of the abdomen. 



