186 



No. 4 (more advanced stage). Body covered with sooty down ; a line of soft pale blue feathers on each 

 side of the fore neck and breast ; stiff white filaments on the crown and sides of the head ; bill black, 

 with a whitish spot in its median portion and also at the tip of the npper mandible. 



No. 5 (partially fledged) . Head, nape, and upper parts generally blackish brown, edged with paler brown, 

 tinged on the scapulars and wing-coverts with blue; throat and abdomen dusky brown; fore neck and 

 breast pale blue ; all the plumage fluffy, and with downy filaments adhering to the feathers ; soft tuft 

 under the rudimentary tail pale fulvous. 



No. 6 (fully fledged) . Head, hind neck, and upper surface blackish brown, with numerous touches of 

 lighter brown, and tinged on the wings with blue ; chin pale brown ; fore neck, breast, and sides dull 

 mazarine-blue, some of the feathers edged with fulvous brown; abdomen pale fulvous brown; under 

 tail-coverts yellowish white ; irides brown ; bill brownish black, inclining to red towards the base and 

 on the frontal plate ; legs dark brown, with a reddish tinge. 



Obs. As already shown, the colours of the bill and legs are regulated by conditions of age and sex; but they 

 likewise differ somewhat in richness in individual examples of the male. 



Varieties. The following is the description of a partial albino obtained at Manawatu, and now preserved in 

 the Colonial Museum. The head, neck, and sides of the breast as in ordinary examples, except that the 

 nape is freckled Avith pale brown and white ; breast, sides of the body, abdomen, and flanks brownish 

 white, clouded and obscurely banded with pale blue; under tail-coverts white; upper parts of the body 

 brownish white, clouded and blotched with dark brown, excepting on the rump, where the brownish 

 white is uniform ; the primaries are dirty white, crossed at the base, and again in their apical portion 

 by a band of bluish brown, the inferior ones tipped also with brown; the coverts are white, washed with 

 yellowish brown and obscurely banded with darker brown ; outer edges of wings bright blue ; tail- 

 feathers brownish white, their coverts dark brown; bill and frontal plate as in ordinary examples; legs 

 pale yellowish red. There is a similar sport of nature in the Canterbury Museum, differing, however, 

 from the bird just described in the larger amount of white on the back and in the darker colour of its 

 wings. In this specimen the head and neck are spotted with white, and the underparts are handsomely 

 variegated with pale blue on a whitish ground. 



The Swamp-hen is widely distributed over Tasmania, the greater part of the continent of 

 Australia, New Zealand, and the Chatham Islands, It occurs also in New Caledonia ; and the 

 Maoris have a tradition that tame ones were brought by their ancestors, in their migration from 

 the historic " Hawaiki." It is abundant in our country in all localities suited to its habits of 

 life, such as marshes, flax-swamps, and lagoons covered with beds of raupo and rushes. It also 

 frequents the banks of freshwater streams ; and in places contiguous to these haunts it is accus- 

 tomed to resort, in the early morning, to the open fields and cultivated grounds in quest of food. 

 It subsists principally on soft vegetable substances, but it also feeds on insects and grain. By 

 the aid of its powerful bill it pulls up the inner succulent stems of the raupo, or swamp-reed, 

 and nips off the soft parts near the root, holding the object in the toes of one foot while feeding, 

 something after the manner of a Parrot. It is a noticeable fact that in many of the settled 

 districts its numbers have perceptibly increased within the last few years, owing, no doubt, to 

 the greater abundance of food afforded by the farms and plantations of the colonists. Large flocks 

 of them may often be seen spread over the stubble-fields, or diligently at work in the potato- 

 grounds or among the standing corn. On being disturbed, they generally run to the nearest 



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