EALLID^ LIMNOCOEAX 259 



Description. Adult Male. — General colour above black, some- 

 wbat greyish on the head and neck, somewhat browner on the 

 scapulars, coverts and secondaries, most of which are distinctly 

 margined with greyish-white. Primaries ashy-black, the outer web 

 of the first white ; below, the sides of the head, breast, flanks and 

 abdomen ashy-grey passing to pure white on the chin and centre of 

 the abdomen ; a slight wash of rufous brown on the centre of the 

 breast ; under tail-coverts rufous-brown. 



Iris brown tinged with reddish-yellow ; bill horn brown, paler 

 on the lower mandible ; legs and feet dark brown or dusky-green. 



Length about 7'0 ; wing 2-9 ; tail 1'8 ; eulmen -61 ; tarsus 1-3 ; 

 middle toe 1"8. 



A young bird is browner above ; the sides of the face and of the 

 body somewhat tinged with rufous. 



Distribution. — This is a rare Crake, first described by Hartlaub 

 from Gaboon in West Africa. Within our limits it has only been 

 obtained by Andersson at Ondonga in Damaraland in February and 

 March, and more recently near Bast London in May by Mr. 

 Bonstow ; the last example is preserved in the South African 

 Museum. It has also been recorded from Elbe near Mombasa and 

 from Biskra in Algeria. 



Habits.— Mr. Andersson found this bird breeding on several 

 occasions in March and February at Ondonga in Damaraland ; the 

 eggs, four or five in number, were yellowish with a broad zone of 

 light brownish-red at the thicker end ; the nests were placed on the 

 ground, on one occasion at the edge of a marsh in a dryish tuft of 

 grass, on another occasion far from water and with the surrounding 

 grass tied above it, as in the case of the nest of Gallinula angulata. 



Genus VII. LIMNOCORAX. 



Type. 

 Limnocorax, Peters, Monatsb. Ah. Berlin, 1854, p. 187 L. niger 



Bill stout and short, eulmen a good deal shorter than the inner 

 toe ; no frontal shield ; wings rounded, the secondaries falling short 

 of the primaries by less than the length of the hind toe and claw ; 

 the first primary considerably shorter than the longest secondary ; 

 tail-feathers normal, not decomposed, tarsus distinctly shorter than 

 the middle toe and claw ; toes not webbed ; secondaries not white ; 

 plumage uniform black. 



Only the single species here described is assigned to this genus. 



