Order RALL1F0RME8 
No. 62. 
Family RALLIRM^ 
^ ^ GALLINULA TENEBROSA TENEBROSA. 
BLACK MOOR HEN. 
* (Plate 67.) 
Gallintjla TENEBROSA GrOuld, P.Z.S., p. 20 (1846), South Australia. 
OalUnula tenebrosa Gould, P.Z.S., p. 20 (1846) ; id., B. Austr., VI., PI. 73 (1848) ; id., 
Handb. B. Austr., II., p. 328 (1865) ; Ramsay, P.L.S., N.S.W., I., p. 193 (1876) ; 
id., ih., II., p. 199 (1877) ; id., ih., VII., p. 66 (1882) ; Ramsay, Tab. List 
Austr. B., p. 21 (1888) ; North, Austr. Mus. Cat., No. 12, p. 325 (1889) ; Sharpe, 
Cat. B. Brit. Mus., XXm., p. 168 (1894) ; Hall, Key B. Austr., p. 78 (1899) ; 
Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs Brit. Mus., I., p. 123 (1901) ; Campbell, Nests and Eggs 
Austr. B., p. 764 (1901) ; HaU, Key B. Austr., 2nd Ed., p. 78 (1906) ; Mathews, 
Handl. B. Austral., p. 13 (1908). 
Distribution. Austraha generally. 
Adult male. General colour dark slate-grey, including the head, hind-neck and under-surface, 
becoming paler on the lower abdomen ; enthe back and scapulars tinged with brown ; 
wing-coverts dark slate-grey ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts and quills black ; tail- 
feathers black, more or less fringed with brown on the outer webs ; central under 
tail-coverts black, the lateral ones white ; “ BiU, frontal plate orange, base blood 
red, tip greenish yellow, above the knee a garter of yellow and scarlet ; joints of legs 
and feet ohve ; sides of tarsi and frontal plates of toes yellow ; iris ohve ” (J. Gould). 
Total length, 360 mm ; culmen, including frontal shield, 47 ; wing, 220 ; tail, 80 ; 
tarsus, 66. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Immature male. Similar to the adult female, but having the under-surface paler with white 
margins to the feathers, most conspicuously on the chin and lower abdomen ; a line 
round the bend of the wing white, as also the outer edge of the first primary. 
Nestling {in down). Greenish-black above, sooty-black below, with white hair-hke tips to the 
down on the chin and throat. 
Nest. “ Slightly concave on the top, composed of dead flags or rushes, sometimes with 
twigs added ; lined with the paper-like bark of tea-tree {Melaleuca), and placed in 
water among rushes, etc., or at the base of tea-trees. Dimensions over all, about 12 
inches ; height (from the water) about 12 inches ” (Campbell). 
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