HAWAIIAN BIRDS. 99 



alone it is found, and amid its novel surroundings it has developed 

 very remarkable habits. The following account is taken from 

 Rothschild: Palmer says that it is "diurnal in its habits, very 

 active, fearless and extremely inquisitive." Professor Schauins- 

 land says of it: "This funny little rail has become accustomed 

 to a totally new life; it lost its power of flight completely, and 

 hardly uses its rudiments of wings to help it when running like a 

 shadow across the sands with mouse-like spe^d. Originally tnore 

 a swamp bird and dependent on worms, it has here become om- 

 nivorous, and the sea-birds must furnish its principal food. Al- 

 though it cannot open their eggs with its thin beak, I have often 

 seen it partake of the tasty inside of an egg when a Telespiza had 

 broken one. It does not even despise corpses of birds, which are 

 so frequent here, but it tears the flesh off in pieces and devours it ; 

 it feeds also chiefly oti flies and the numerous beetles {Der- 

 mestes)." 



"The nest of the Laysan crake is built under the thickest 

 bunches of grass and there is a cover placed over it with a hole 

 on the side for the bird to enter. It consists of grass woven to- 

 gether with very fine shreds of grass, fibres, and a little down, 

 with here and there a feather intermixed, the materials softer in- 

 side." 



"The eggs are longish oval and measure on an average 1.15 by 

 0.86 inch. The colour is pale creamy buff, flecked with pale red- 

 dish brown and pale purplish grey." 



Description. — Adult. Above light brown, many of the feathers with 

 blackish centers; sides of head and neck, chin, throat, breast and abdo- 

 men slaty gray. Bill light green; tarsus and feet greenish. Length about 

 6 inches. 



Fulica alai, Peale. Alae keokeo. 



In general appearance, habits, and notes this bird is the counter- 

 part of the American fresh water coot from which, no doubt, it 

 is descended, but from which it presents recognizable differences. 

 The natives know it by the name of alae keokeo, white alae, in 

 contradistinction from the red alae (Gallinula) because of its 

 beautiful cream-colored frontal sbieia (red in the Gallinule) and 



