258 EALLIDJ;! • LIMNOBJENDS 



white ; uader tail-coverts rufous banded with black ; iris ashy 

 hazel ; tarsi and feet dusky pink. 



Length about 5-5 (in flesh according to Ayres 6-28) ; wing 3-0 ; 

 t ail 1-5 ; tarsus -85 ; culmen 40. 



An immature female has the breast dirty white slightly mottled 

 with darker centres to the feathers. 



Distribution. — This is one of the rarest of South African birds. 

 Mr. Ayres first obtained two females on October 4 and November 

 24, 1876, at Potchefstroom, one of which is now in the British 

 Museum ; a third specimen, also in the same collection, was shot by 

 Mr. E. 0. Anstey, in August, near King WilHam's Town. So far as 

 I am aware, no other examples in collections are known. 



Habits^Mr. Millar informs me that this Crake is found in 

 the vleis about Durban, but is not easily flushed. When it does 

 take flight the white patch on the wing is conspicuous. The flight 

 is short, and after alighting in the rushes it is seldom put up a 

 second time. 



Genus VI. LIMNOB^NUS. 



Type. 

 Limnobsenus, Sundev., Av. Meth. Tent., p. 130 (1872)... L. fuscus. 



Bill short and stout ; the culmen shorter than the hind toe and 

 claw ; no frontal shield ; wings somewhat pointed but the second- 

 aries falling short of the primaries by less than the length of the 

 hind toe and claw ; first primary as long as the longest secondary ; 

 tail-feathers normal not decomposed ; tarsus very distinctly shorter 

 than the middle toe and claw. 



This is a genus of four or five species spread over Africa and 

 Southern and Eastern Asia ; only the single species here described 

 is found within the limits of our area. 



679. Limnobaenus marginalis. Hartlaub's Crake. 



Porzana marginalis, B^. Cotnptes Bend, xliii, p. 599 (1856) ; HartloMb, 



Orn. W. Afr. p. 241 (1857). 

 Ortygometra marginalis, Gurney, in Andersson's B. Damaral. p. 318 



(1872). 

 Crex marginalis, Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 612 (1884). 

 Limnobaenus marginalis, Sharpe, Notes Leyd. Mtis. xv, p. 270 (1893) ; 



id. Cat. B. M. xxiii, p. 335 (1894). 

 Corethrura marginalis, Beichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 282 (1900), 



