208 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



with white ; bill yellowish-green ; iris ruby ; tarsi and feet yellowish. Total 

 length 509 mm. ; culmen, including frontal shield, 40, wing 187, tail 95, tarsus 78. 



Adult female. Similar to the adult male but very slightly smaller. Total 

 length 502 mm ; culmen 39, wing 185, tail 95, tarsus 77. 



Immature male. Is distinguished from the adult in being paler brown on the 

 head, grey on the hind-neck and mantle, and having the lower back washed with 

 grey. The chief distinction is the white marks on the wing-coverts, which are pear 

 shaped, and as the bird advances in age, become narrow streaks, and finally disappear 

 when the adult plumage is attained ; the white margins to the feathers of the lower 

 flanks are also much more strongly pronounced. 



Nestling (ten days old). Covered with black down, with a white spot on each 

 side of the flank ; ear coverts silver-grey. 



Young (three weeks old). Olive-brown above ; tail black ; head streaked with 

 black ; chin white, throat streaked with blackish and grey ; sides of the neck grey ; 

 a stripe of blackish-brown down the middle of the under-surface, on both sides of 

 which is grey ; the tuft of feathers on the side buff. 



Nest. Usually placed on the bank of a stream or lagoon. Made of tussocks 

 pulled up by the roots and tramped down by the birds' feet, lined with soft reeds. 



Eggs. Clutch, six to nine ; smooth and slightly glossy ; stone colour, minutely 

 spotted with chestnut over the entire surface, with bolder blotching of the same 

 colour and paler underlying markings, sparsely distributed ; axis 59mm., diameter 

 39 to 41. 



Breeding-season. September, October, and November. 



Distribution and forms. Confined to Tasmania and therefore no subspecies. 



Genus PORPHYRIO. 



Porphyrio Brisson, Ornith., Vol. I., p. 54, Vol. V., p. 522, 1760. Type (by tautonymy) : 

 Porphyrio = Fulica porphyrio Linn'>. 



Ccesarornis Reichenbach, Nat. Syst. Vogel, p. xxi., 1852 (? 1853). Type (by original 

 designation) : Gallinula poliocephala Latham. 



Birds generally larger than the species of Gallinula, with a short, high, and 

 strongly curved, compressed bill, and the frontal shield very large. Nostrils oval 

 or rounded, pervious ; no nasal groove, but a shallow depression only. Wings 

 short and rounded ; toes very long, the middle toe with claw exceeding the tarsus 

 in length ; no lateral membranes or lobes to the toes. The tarsus is covered with 

 horizontal scutes in front and behind with scarcely a row between on the sides ; 

 the hind-toe is long as in Gallinula ; the claws are long and little curved ; the tibia 

 is exposed for nearly one-third the length of the tarsus and is scutellate in front 

 and behind with reticulation between. 



The tail is rather long, composed of twelve rather broad feathers and square, 

 less than half the length of the rounded wings which have the second primary 

 longest. 



144. Porphyrio melanotus. BALD COOT. 



Gould, Vol. VI., pi. 69 (pt. xxx.), March 1st, 1848. Mathews, Vol. I., pt. 5, pi. 60, Oct. 31st, 

 1911. 



Porphyrio melanotus Temminck, Manuel d'Orn, 2* ed.. Vol. II., p. 701, Oct. 21st, 1820 : 



"Australia" = New South Wales. 



Porphyrio melanotus ftetcherce Mathews, Birds Austr., Vol. I., pt. 5, p. 243, Oct. 31st, 1911 r 



Tasmania. 



Porphyrio melanotus neomelanotus Mathews, ib., p. 246, pi. 60 : Parry's Creek, North-west 



Australia. 



DISTRIBUTION. Australia (except South-west) and Tasmania 



