200 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



broad white margins ; axillaries dusky-brown with a few white bars ; bill and feet 

 olive-brown. Total length 158 mm. ; culmen 15 to 17, wing 86 (varies from 77 

 to 88), tail 45, tarsus 25. 



Adult female. Similar to adult male. 



Immature. Differs from the adult in having the bars on the sides of the body 

 not so sharply defined, and more or less mixed with the tawny colour of the upper- 

 surface, which also pervades the sides of the breast, which is white like the under- 

 surface. 



Nestling. Covered with greenish-black down. 



Nest. Slightly concave on top ; composed of portions of small round or flat 

 (according to the species) rushes or other aquatic plants, and concealed in rushes 

 etc., in shallow water or on the mud of swamps. Dimensions over all, about 4 in. 

 by 6 in. in height ; egg cavity, about J in. deep. There are usually two small (back 

 and front) entrances to the nest, through the clump of herbage containing the nest. 



Eggs. Clutch, four to eight ; oval in shape ; texture of shell fine ; surface 

 glossy ; colour brownish-olive, fairly but faintly mottled over the whole surface with 

 a darker shade of the same colour. Dimensions 25-28 mm. by 19-20. 



Breeding -season. October to January. 



Distribution and forms. Central and southern Europe and northern Africa, 

 wintering in Africa but local races also occurring there, across Asia to Japan wintering 

 southwards, and through Australia to New Zealand where it is stationary. The 

 northern forms have not been accurately determined, the western being accepted 

 as Z. p. intermedia (Hermann) by its darker coloration and the lack of the brown 

 loral streak ; the southern Australian race Z. p. palustris (Gould) is a darker form 

 throughout, also with no loral stripe ; Z. p. fitzroyi (Mathews) is a little larger 

 with a stouter bill and a little paler coloration ; and Z. p. affinis (Gray) from New 

 Zealand, is larger and darker, and without the white on the primaries. 



Genus PORZANOIDEA. 



Porzanoidea Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. I., pt. 5, p. 117, Dec. 28th, 1912. Type (by 



original designation) : Callinula immaculata Swainson. 



GaUinula Swainson, Classif. Birds, Vol. II., p. 358, July 1st, 1837. Type (by subsequent 



designation, Mathews, Check List, p. 15, 1920) : G. immaculata Swainson. 



Not of Brisson, Ornith., Vol. VI., p. 2, 1760. 



Small Rails with medium bills, short wings, short tail and short legs and long 

 toes. The bill is like that of Zapomia, but the base of the culmen has no distinct 

 line of demarcation from the fore-head and the head seems flatter ; the gonys is well 

 marked but not angulated. The wing is short and rounded, the first primary shorter 

 than the second which is a little shorter than the third which is longest, the fourth 

 little Jess, but the fifth less than the second ; the inner secondaries long, but com- 

 paratively, for this series, short. The tail is short, but is rounded, composed of 

 twelve broad soft feathers, and is longer than half the wing. The legs are medium, 

 the tarsus longer than the culmen and also longer than the middle toe ; it is scutel- 

 lated back and front ; the middle toe is longest, the outer longer than the inner, 

 with the hind-toe very long. 



Coloration dark brown above, head and under-surface dark leaden -grey. 



138. Porzanoidea plumbea. SPOTLESS CRAKE. 



\Crex plumbea " Gray" Griffith and Pidgeon, Anim. Kingd., Cuvier, Vol. VIII., p. 410, 

 " 1829 "= 1830. No loc. = New Zealand. Extra-limital.] 



Gould, Vol. VI., pi. 82 (pt. xxiv.), Sept. 1st, 1846. Mathews, Vol. I., pt. 4, pi. 53, Aug. 9th, 



