" Having received the eggs of this pretty Rail from different quarters, I have deemed it necessary 

 to describe them, because in none can I discern the pale olive ground colour mentioned in Gould and 

 elsewhere, and which is probably referable to the eggs of the Tabuan Water Crake. Le win's Rail constructs 

 a nest of very fine grasses among the rushes of a swamp. The top of the nest is about six inches above 

 the surface of the water, and generally has a singular stage or ladder leading down from it. Clutch of 

 eggs, from four to six in number. 



" Egg, oval in form, shell fine, and surface slightly lustrous ; ground colour of a beautiful pinkish- 

 white, fairly marked with spots and blotches of chestnut, light carmine, and dull purple, the last colour 

 appearing as if beneath the shell's surface. Length, 1 inch 3^ lines ; breadth, 1 inch." 



The male has the head and sides of neck rufous, striated with black on the crown ; throat and 

 breast, bluish grey ; abdomen, thighs, vent and tail-coverts, blackish-brown, barred with white, the 

 barring growing finer and more indistinct towards the vent ; back and tail, brown, striped with olive ; 

 shoulders and wings, irregularly barred with black and white like under surfaces ; primaries, brown ; bill, 

 brownish-red ; irides, hazel ; feet, flesh colour, becoming darker about the toes. The female is a little less 

 bright in colour. 



The young birds, when fully fledged, have the rufous colour on the neck undeveloped, and the 

 barring on the wings, flanks, and abdomen is very faint. The chicks look like bales of silky black 

 down. 



Habitats : Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence River Districts, New South Wales, Victoria 

 and South Australia, Tasmania, West and South-West Australia. 



RALLINA TBI COLOR (G. R. Gray). 



TBI COL U RED RAIL. Genus : Rallus. 



THIS is a bird of restricted habitat, whose home in the Far North is yet so little explored that 

 naturalists have been able to gather but few facts as to its habits or economy. 



It was first seen at Cape York, and a skin forwarded to Gould by Mr. C. Coxen ; upon comparing 

 which with skins brought from New Guinea and the Aru Islands, Gould found all three specimens were 

 identical. 



About Somerset the Tricoloured Rail affects the dry scrubs which border a small creek, and once 

 a nest containing white eggs was discovered there. If these were this bird's eggs, it is the first instance 

 on record of a Rail's eggs being colourless. Among the natives this bird is known as " Tangata," from the 

 peculiar note it utters at night. 



The sexes are alike in plumage, but, like the rest of the Rail family, the female is considerably 

 smaller than the male. 



Head, neck, nape, and breast, ferruginous red, becoming pale at the throat ; under surfaces, light 

 olive brown, each feather transversely fringed with reddish buff ; thighs, lighter brown, spotted with dull 

 buff ; under wings, spotted with transverse oval spots that show like bars when the wings are extended ; 

 back, wings, and tail, dark olive brown ; bill, dark green, fading into yellow at tip ; legs and feet, greenish- 

 black ; irides, red. 



Habitats : Cape York, Rockingham Bay, south coast of New Guinea. 



