AUSTRALIAN SPOTTED CRAKE. 
brown barred with whitish ; quills dull ashy-brown below ; “ Bill ohve-green, orange- 
red at the base ; feet dark olive-green” (Gould). Total length, 172 mm ; culmen, 20 ; 
wing, 93 ; tail, 37 ; tarsus, 27. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Nest. “ Composed of grass, dry and green intermixed, placed above water-level, in a bush 
growing in the water of a lake or swamp ” (Morgan). 
Nffgs. “Five. The ground-colour is of a light ohve-brown, with dark reddish-brown spots, 
more plentiful at the larger end, but not forming a distinct ring, some of the marking 
appear as if beneath the surface. At the larger end there are, in each egg, a few round, 
almost black spots. Measurements in inches 1t®6 - ItV by if.” (Morgan). 
Breeding season. August (Morgan) ; September to December (Ramsay). 
I CAN find little regarding the life history of this bird. Capt. S. A. White teUs 
me it is the shyest of all the family. It keeps to the thickest mass of rushes, 
and can only be flushed with the assistance of dogs. Berney’s experience* is as 
follows : “ I had it ” (the bird procured) and a mate under observation for a 
fortnight. They kept to the thick beds of bulrushes on some bore water, only 
showing out to feed along the edge in the early morning and evening, and got 
back to cover wading through the water, as soon as disturbed, but not displaying 
any great shyness.” 
The bird figured and described is a male, collected near Adelaide, South 
Australia. 
♦ Emu, VI., p. 108 (1907). 
213 
