10 AVIFAUNA OF LAYSAN. 



The eggs are longish oval and measure on an average 115 by 0'86 inch. The colour is 

 pale creamy buff, fleeked with pale reddish brown and pale purplish grey, both colours being 

 somewhat indistinct and covering the egg equally over the whole surface. Some are rather 

 more rufous and more distinctly spotted with fewer and larger spots. 



The nest described above was found on June 24th, 1891. 



Palmer's notes on this bird are as follows :-" It is very plentiful all over the island, is 

 diurnal in its habits, very active, fearless, and extremely inquisitive : I could always catch 

 them by placing my net edgeways on an open space of ground, for they would immediately 

 run up to see what it was. Their food consists of all kinds of insects and other birds eggs, 

 but they are especially fond of the maggots off dead birds. It cannot fly." 



The following notes were taken by Mr. E. W. Trohawk from the living birds that were 

 in my possession :— 



« It is incapable of flight, very active and swift on foot, tame, and fearless, lhey never 

 attempted to make use of their feeble wings, and they only opened them when, springing up 

 to perch. 



"During the day they kept up an incessant chirping, consisting of from one to tnree 

 soft, short, and clear notes ; but soon after dusk they all, as if by one given signal, struck 

 up a most peculiar chorus, which lasted but a few seconds, and then all was silent. I can 

 only compare the sound to a handful or two of marbles being thrown on a glass roof and then 

 descending in a succession of bounds, striking and restriking the glass at each ricochet. 



" The tail is at times held drooping, sometimes elevated, and frequently jerked up and 

 down." 



Although the size was given wrong by the sailors, there cannot be any doubt that no. 15 

 in Kittlitz's List refers to this Rail, and that it was also this Kail that Captain Walter Edw. 

 Wood saw on Laysan Island in 1872, describing it to Dr. Otto Finseh as a « small wingless 

 bird, a kind of Woodhen" {cf. Hartl. Abh. naturw. Verein Bremen, xii. p. 400, 1892). 



