704 Birds of Celebes: Rallidae. 



Limnocorax niger (1) Gurney, Ibis 1868, 470; (2) Sliarpe, Cat. B. 1894, XXIII, 150; 

 (3) R. &J. Woodward, Ibis 1897, 401. 



For further synonymy and references cf. Sharpe 2. 



Figure and descriptions. Swainson h I, Sharpe 2. 



Adult. Black, witb a slaty tone on mantle, wing-coverts and under-parts, a brown tone on 

 lower back and scapulars; "iris and eyebrows crimson, bill yellowish grass-green, feet 

 coral red" — Buttik. c4 (Cape — Nr. 11476). 



Sex. The sexes are alike in coloration. 



Young. "Chocolate-brown, instead of black Hke the adult, with a little ashy grey, showing 

 the adult plumage; lores and feathers above and below the eye whitish; under sur- 

 face of body ashy grey, wliiter on the cheeks and throat" (Sharpe 2). 



Chick. Jet-black, covered with hairy down, pointed with white in very young specimens on 

 the head, especially on the chin; terminal half of upper and lower bill sliining wax- 

 wliite, base of latter black; cutting edge of upper bill wax-black continued to the 

 gape, a shield of deep flesh-colour (from Bohm c 2). 



Eggs. Apparently 2 — 6 in number; light yellow-brown, sprinkled with finer and larger spots 

 of dark brown: size 41 — 44 X 29 — 30 mm (from Bohm). 



Nest. Bound, flat, somewhat inartistically fashioned of rush stalks; one found by Reichard 

 in a clump of grass a foot above the water (Bohm). 



Distribution. Nearly the whole of Afi'ica (Sharpe 5); North Celebes (Meyer d 3, c 3). 



An example of this African Crake was killed by Meyer near Manado in 

 March, 1871. The record is surprising, but there appears to be no reason to 

 doubt the accuracy of the locality, as Cabanis has done (e 2) on grounds be- 

 lieved by Meyer (c 3) to be insufficient. Rails have a knack of finding them- 

 selves in all sorts of out-of-the-way places, and there is nothing more unusual 

 in the occurrence of Limnocorax niger in Celebes than in that of Hi/potaenidia 

 philippensis in Mauritius, of Amaurornis cinerea in the Carolines, of Porzana 

 tahuensis in New Zealand and Australia as well as Polynesia. A particularly 

 good parallel among other birds is the occurrence of Scops manadensis of Celebes 

 (or a scarcely separable race of it) in Madagascar, which again may be com- 

 pared with Konig's discovery of a small Cuban Owl (Glaucidium siju) in the 

 Canaries (J. f O. 1890, 336). 



For remarks on the habits of the Black Crake, Ayres (d 2, 1 etc.), Bohm 

 (c 2) and Buttik of er (c 4) may be consulted. The last-named observer writes 

 that he never saw it swimming in Liberia, and Dr. Bohm in E. Africa hardly 

 ever saw it in water, or on the wing. It is wary, hasting to concealment by 

 running when alarmed, but sometimes it may be seen walking "with a most 

 graceful step and nodding head on the mud and, as much as possible, beside 

 and through the high grass" (Biittikofer). Several nests with eggs and young, 

 were found by Dr. Bohm, as described above. 



GENUS AMAURORNIS Rchb. 



Bill equal to or slightly longer than the cranium, compressed, high — ■ 

 about twice as high as broad across the nostrils, slightly swollen at the base 



