SPOTLESS CRAKE. 201 



'Gallinula immaculata Swainson, Anim. in Menag., p. 337, Dec. 31st, 1837 : Tasmania. 



Porzana plumbea roberti Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 446, Jan. 31st, 1912 : South 



west Australia. 



Porzanoidea plumbea campbelli Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. II., pt. 5, p. 85, Sept. 24th, 



1914 : Botany Swamps, New South Wales. 



DISTRIBUTION. New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South and South-west Australia. 



Adult male. Colour above chocolate-brown ; wing-coverts like the back, the 

 greater series dull sepia-brown, externally chocolate-brown ; bastard-wing sepia- 

 brown, with white margins to the outer feathers ; the primary-coverts and quills 

 sepia-brown, the first primary edged with white, the inner secondaries blackish, 

 margined with chocolate-brown ; upper tail-coverts and tail blackish, slightly 

 washed with chocolate-brown ; top of the head and hind-neck slaty-black ; lores, 

 sides of face, sides of neck and entire under-surface of body dark leaden-grey, a 

 little paler on the throat ; under tail-coverts black, with a few twin spots or bars 

 of white ; axillaries ashy-brown with narrow whitish ends ; under wing-coverts 

 dusky -grey, more or less intermixed with white ; quills dusky-brown below ; bill 

 black ; eye and eyelash red ; feet dull brick-red. Total length 181 mm. ; culmen 20, 

 wing 82 (varies from 80 to 91), tail 50, tarsus 26. 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 



Nestling. Covered with greenish-black down. 



Immature. An apparently immature bird from Tasmania is not so chocolate- 

 brown above ; slightly darker underneath, with the throat uniform with the breast. 

 Bill and iris black ; legs and feet light brown. 



Nest. Composed of dry grass, placed on the ground under the shelter of a 

 clump of rushes or band-grass, in the proximity of water. 



Eggs. Clutch, three or four ; ground-colour stone, covered all over with brown 

 and lavender markings ; 30 mm. by 22. 



Breeding-season. August to January. 



Distribution and forms. Through Australia, New Zealand, the Kermadecs and 

 New Caledonia ; replaced in the Pacific by other species. Six subspecies are named, 

 as follows : P.p. plumbea (Griffith and Pidgeon) from New Zealand ; P.p. immacu- 

 lata (Swainson) from Tasmania, with shorter bill and tarsus and brighter upper 

 coloration with secondaries short ; P. p. roberti (Mathews) from South-west Australia 

 with a paler chestnut back and darker head ; P. p. campbelli Mathews from New 

 South Wales, smaller and paler above and below ; P. p. oliveri Mathews and Iredale 

 from the Kermadec Islands, with darker back and short wing-coverts ; and P. p. 

 caledonica (Brasil) from New Caledonia, with a short wing (75 mm.) and short tarsus 

 25 mm.)- 



Genus POLIOLIMNAS. 



Poliolimnas Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Ornith. Club, Vol. I., p. xxvni., Jan. 26th, 1893. Type 

 (by original designation) : Porphyrio cinereus Vieillot. 



Small Rails with long stout bills, short wings, short tails, and long legs and feet. 

 The bill is laterally compressed as in the preceding, but is stouter and not so pointed ; 

 the culmen ridge is a little broader and more arched, thus while the depth at base is 

 less than half the length of the bill, the depth at the gonys is not much less ; the 

 culmen base broadens out and the feathers of the fore -head form a projecting semi- 

 circle, quite unlike the bases of the culmen in the preceding genera ; the lower mandible 

 is deep, the rami strong, the gonys marked, the interramal race anteriorly unfeathered 

 where a small process can be seen ; the nasal apertures are linear and pervious as 

 usual, but only little more than half the length and more open. The wing is short 

 and rounded, the first primary short, the second, third, fourth, and fifth subequal, 

 the inner secondaries very little less. The legs are long, the tibia being exposed for 



