Order BALLIF0RME8 Family BALLIDJE. 
No. 57. 
PORZANA PUSILLA PALUSTRIS. 
LITTLE CRAKE. 
(Plate 52.) 
PoRZANA PALUSTRIS Gould, P.Z.S., p. 139 (1842), Tasmania. 
Blue-necked Rail, var. A. Latham, Gen. Hist. B., IX., p. 378 (1824). 
PorzarM palustris Gould, P.Z.S., p. 139 (1842) ; id., B. Austr., VI., PI. 80 (1848) ; id., Handb. 
B. Austr., II., p. 340 (1865) ; Ramsay, P.L.S., N.S.W., I., p. 193 (1876) ; id., ih., 
II., p. 200 (1877) ; id., ih., VII., p. 56 (1882) ; id.. Tab. List Austr. B., p. 21 (1888) ; 
North, Austr. Mus. Cat., No. 12, p. 332 (1889) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus., XXIII., 
p. 109 (1894) ; North, B. County Cumb., p. 108 (1898) ; Campbell, Nests and 
Eggs Austr. B., p. 747 (1901) ; Hall, Key B. Austr., p. 77 (1899-1906) ; Sharpe, Hist. 
Coll. Nat. Hist. Brit. Mus., II., p. 149 (1906) ; Mathews, Handl. B. Austral., p. 13 
(1908) ; Littler, Handl. B. Tasmania, p. 114 (1910). 
Oriygormtra palustris Gray, list Spec, in Brit. Mus., p. 119 (1844). 
Distribution. Queensland ; New South Wales ; Victoria ; Tasmania ; South Australia ; 
Western Australia. 
Adult male. General colour above tawny-brown, duller on the head, which is mottled or 
spotted, with black centres to the feathers, more sparsely on the nape and hind-neck ; 
mantle and back black, as well as the scapulars, the feathers mostly edged with tawny- 
brown or white, and having subterminal spots or streaks of white, producing a freckled 
appearance ; upper tail-coverts and tail-feathers tawny-brown, with black centres 
and white spots or bars ; wing-coverts tawny-brown, the greater series with white, 
black-edged spots or bars near the ends ; bastard- wing brown, with white on the outer 
margin ; primary-coverts and quiUs dark brown, the first primary edged with white ; 
the long inner secondaries black, with tawny-brown borders and broken bars of white ; 
eyebrow, sides of face and sides of neck, slate-grey, becoming paler on the chin, throat 
and middle of breast and abdomen ; sides of body and flanks, and under tail-coverts 
regularly barred with black and white ; thighs uniform slaty-grey, paler internally ; 
under wing- coverts dusky brown, with broad white margins ; axillaries dusky brown 
with a few white bars ; “ Bill and feet olive-brown ” (Gould). Total length, 158 mm. ; 
culmen, 15 to 17 ; wing, 86 (varies from 77 to 88) ; tail, 45 ; tarsus, 25. 
Adult female. Similar to adult male. 
Immature. Differs from the adult in having the bars on the sides of the body not so sharply 
defined, and more or less mixed with the tawny colour of the upper-surface, which also 
pervades the sides of the breast, which is white like the under-surface. 
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