APPENDIX. il5 



ORTYGOMETRA TABUENSIS, Gmelin. 

 Tabuan "Water Crake. 

 Gould, Hmidhk. Bds, Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 575, p. 341. 



This species is dispersed all over the Australian, Austro- 

 Malayan and Pacific regions. Although having such an extensive 

 geographical range it is a very difficult species to procure, as 

 its favourite haunts, the sedgy and reed covered margins of 

 lagoons and rivers, always a£ford it a tolerably secure retreat on 

 the first approach of danger. On Norfolk Island Dr. Metcalfe 

 informs me he found an old nest of this species with an egg in it, 

 built in rushes, and that it was composed of dead flags and raised 

 above the water similar to that of Porphyria mslanotus. The 

 egg is oval in form, rounded at each end which are equal in size, 

 the texture being fine and slightly glossy, of a very pale creamy- 

 brown ground colour, with numerous indistinct fine fleecy 

 markings of light chestnut-brown thickly and uniformly dispersed 

 over the entire surface of the shell. Length 1"15 x 0"91 inch. ^^j^ ?3^/. 



Hob. Australian, Austro-Malayan and Pacific regions. 



PORPHYRIO MELANOTUS, Temmhick. 

 Black-backed Porphyiio. 

 Oould, Handhk. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 563, p. 321. 



This species is dispersed over the greater part of the Australian 

 Continent, Tasmania and New Zealand, breeding in swampy 

 places, and constructing a nest of dried flags and weeds slightly 

 cupped at the top, and placed in rushes in the centre of streams 

 several feet above the water. Dr. Metcalfe informs me that 

 on Norfolk Island the number of eggs laid by this bird for a 

 sitting is " twelve or more," this is greatly in excess of the number 

 laid by the same species in Australia, where five, the usual com- 

 plement laid, is rarely exceeded. An average specimen taken 

 by Dr. Metcalfe on the 2nd of November, 1889, is ovoid in form, 

 of a yellowish-brown ground colour, with large irregular shaped 



