1920.] Western Ausfrulian Birds. G91 



Gallinula tenebrosa magnirostris. 



Western Black ]\Ioorliens are not uncommon in some of 

 tlie numerons large swamps in the south-west, but appear 

 to be local in distribution, Mr. Higham and I obtained 

 several specimens in deep swampy pools near the mouth 

 of the Warren River in March 1911), and lost others 

 that were shot. It was a very unpleasant and sometimes 

 risky proceeding to retrieve them, owing to deep water, 

 unknov\'n depths of mud, and treacherous weeds and rushes. 

 There were also unliniited numbers of large water-leeches, 

 and venomous black snakes abounded in the rushy edo-es of 

 the swamps. However, Mr. Higham was always game 

 enough to make an attempt to recover any birds that were 

 shot in such places. This species occurs on some of the 

 lakes in the neighbourhood of Perth, and we obtained 

 specimens at Girgin, fifty miles north of that city. After 

 a careful comparison by Mr. AV. B. Alexander and myself 

 of specimens of this bird from the Eastern Srates and West 

 Australia, we agree that they are subspecifically distinct, 

 as first shown by Mr. Mathews. 



a. Ad. ? . Girgin, 18 May, 1919. Bill dark green, 

 yellowish tips; legs and feet olive-brown; knee- 

 joint red. 



h. Imm. ? . Warren River, 28 March, 1919. Bill mot- 

 tled green and black ; base of lower mandible oreen ; 

 frontal pfate black ; feet and legs grass-green, 



Porphyrio bellus. 



The Blue Bald Coot is common about the swamps and 

 river-banks of the south-west. When at the Warren 

 River, Mr. Higham and I noticed one of these birds (pre- 

 sumably the same one) on several occasions feeding on a 

 tussocky flat, and as we approached it by a cattle-j)ath, 

 it crouched down and allowed us to pass witln'n a few feet. 

 This was a very poor attempt at concealment, no use beino- 

 made by the bird of large grass tussocks close to it. 

 In Mathews's ' Birds of Australia/ vol. i. pt. 5, p, 238, 

 the plate of a male bird collected by myself at Albany 



