SLATE-BREASTED RAIL. 
a description in 1831, in the same year that Lesson noted Cuvier’s manuscript 
name, yet has never been recognised hitherto. There can be no doubt that it 
must replace hrachipus ; and as the type-locality was unknown, Temminck 
noting that it was supposed to have come from Oceanica, I designate East 
Australia (New South Wales). 
Capt. A. S. White, of South Australia, sends me the following note : “ This 
little Rail makes its appearance on Adelaide Plains about August and September, 
keeping to the rushes, reeds or grass in the swamps and creeks. In these 
places its sharp note is heard, but the bird seldom seen, for they keep to cover 
very closely. The nest is composed of grass and aquatic plants, and placed 
close to the water. The young, when they leave the nest, are covered in 
black down. When the young are fully fledged they do not show the 
barring on the flanks, or any rusty-red on the neck. These birds leave us 
in November, and I have never known of a case where they stopped through- 
out the year.” 
Gould,* speaking of this bird, says : “In Tasmania this species is very 
abundant in all low, marshy situations, lagoons, and the rushy banks of 
rivers ; it occurs in most of the small islands in D’Entrecasteaux Channel ; I 
have also seen specimens from Southern and Western Australia, which are 
precisely similar in their markings, and only differ in being somewhat larger.” 
Mr. Brentt contrasts the nest of the Spotted Crake [Porzana fluminea] 
and this (Lewin’s) Rail : “ Both Spotted Crake and Lewin’s Rail have the 
stage or track leading up to the nest, but much larger in the latter, on account 
of the great height of some of the positions from the ground, as compared 
with those of the Crake, which are low down. I have found the nest of the 
Rail as high as three feet from the ground, whereas I have never found the 
other more than one foot high. The nest of the Rail is more compact, 
rounder and deeper, with flne grass and rushes over head, laced together and 
formed into a kind of dome-shaped basket-work covering. I should like 
to draw your attention to the fact that this little bit of workmanship does 
not occur until such time as the bird is sitting, when she seems to amuse her- 
self by reaching up her long neck and bill, and pulling the rushes down. The 
nest of the Crake is not like the Rail’s, being composed of dry bits of ' rushes 
and aquatic weeds, carelessly made, with a slight attempt at an overhead 
covering. When sitting, the nest-stage and eggs are mostly plastered with 
a thick coating of mud, in fact, you cannot tell if the latter are eggs or stones. 
I find I have omitted to say the nest of the Rail is composed of fine band- 
grass (dry), beautifully put together, with a track of the same material, 
* Handb. B. Austr., II., p. 336 (1865). 
t Campbell’s Nests and Eggs Austr. B., p. 740 (1901). 
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