BIRDS OF TASMANIA. 113 



water; marshy ground where a river flows through low-lying 

 country, and any other place where there is moisture and a dense 

 growth of vegetation. Its food consists chiefly of a miscellaneous 

 assortment of insects and molluscs gathered in the marshes and 

 swamps of its hunting ground. 



^SPOTTED CEAKE 

 {Porzana fluminea, Gould). 



Male. — Forehead dark slaty-grey; crown of the head and back 

 olivaceous-brown, the feathers having dusky centres; wing coverts 

 same colour as back, but less spotted; bastard wing, primary 

 coverts, and quills olivaceous-brown; the feathers of the bastard 

 wing are edged with white, as is the first primary; innermost 

 secondaries spotted with white ; throat and breast dark slaty-grey ; 

 abdomen white; sides of body black, with white bars; edge of 

 the wing white; under wing coverts blackish, edged with whitish; 

 bill bright orange at base, passing into olive-green; legs and feet 

 dark olive-green. Dimensions in mm.: — Length, 172; bill, 20; 

 wing, 102; tail, 54; tarsus, 29. 



Female. — Similar to male. 



Nest. — Situated in a clump of grass or rushes growing in a 

 swampy locality, and composed of green weeds and lined with 

 soft grass. A staging connects the nest with the water. 



Eggs. — Clutch four to five; roundish oval in shape; texture 

 fine; surface glossy ; colour brownish-olive, blotched and marked, 

 especially about the stouter end, with red and purplish-brown. 

 Dimensions in mm. of a clutch :— (1) 32 x 22, (2) 31 x 21.5, (3) 31.5 

 X 22, (4) 32 X 22. 



Breeding Season. — September to the end of the year. 



Geographical DistribuUon. — Tasmania, New South Wales, 

 Victoria, and South Australia. 



Observations. — Owing to the reclamation of certain lagoons 

 and semi-swamps, places where it was once abundant know it 

 no more. At no time and in no place are the habits of aquatic 

 birds easy of study, and now that some of tlieir breeding places 

 have gone for ever the task of ascertaining new facts concerning 

 their life-history, &c., is rendered very much more difiicult. Like 

 the rest of the family, the Spotted Crake is of a very retiring dis- 

 position. Its grey and brown plumage so assimilates with its sur- 

 roundings as to prove a defence that makes detection difficult. 

 On account of its habit of keeping close to its natural haunts — 

 reed-beds and swampy ground generally — ^much difficulty is ex- 

 perienced in gathering satisfactory notes of its general habits. 



When forced to take refuge in flight, which it does only when 

 very hard pressed, its wing power is somewhat feeble, the flight 

 being rather low and laboured, with much flapping of the rounded 



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