Order RALLIF0RME8 
No. 66. 
Family RALLIDAS. 
PORPHYRIO MELANOTUS FLETCHERiE. 
TASMANIAN BALD COOT. 
PoRPHYRio MELANOTUS FLETCHER.®,* subsp. 11 ., Tasmania. 
Porphyria melanonotus (notTemm.) Littler, Handb. B. Tasmania, p, 117 (1910). 
Distribution. Tasmania. 
Adult Male. Differs from P. melanotus melanotus in having a much longer wing, viz., 
301 mm. : Type no, 4376 in my collection. 
htest. Not so bulky as that of the mainland form ; composed of flags and lined with grass ; 
placed in the reeds Outside measurements 12 by 6 inches deep ; inside 9 by 2 inches 
deep. 
Eggs. Clutch three to six larger ; and finer and more heavily marked than those of the 
mainland, and also a little more glossj’’ ; axis 50 to 53.5 mm. ; diameter 35 to 37. 
One egg sent has a decided blue ground-colour. 
The above nest and twenty eggs were given me by Miss Ada Fletcher of Tasmania. 
Breeding season. August to November (Fletcher). 
Writing from Tasmania, Miss Fletcher says : “ These birds have a very heavy, 
ugly flight and alight clumsily in the water, as they seem to stiffen their legs 
somehow. Immediately anything suspicious is noticed a warning cry is given, 
which is answered sometimes from bird to bird right across the lagoon. They 
build tiny platforms on which to stand and feed; these are formed of reeds bitten 
off and placed across one another in the soft mud, and sometimes on short reeds. 
About these platforms are to be found round balls, about the size of marbles, 
of chewed-up green-stuff, which have apparently been ejected from the mopth ; 
also there is often much excreta about these places. The birds have exteiisive 
tracks or run-ways, in the reeds. Sometimes, if the reeds are very dense and 
weighted down, the tracks run over them till the more open reeds are reached. 
Before making their nests, these birds make a great number of starts which 
apparently do not satisfy them. I have counted ten commencements around 
the reeds near a finished nest. They have a track leading to the nests. They 
often bend the growing reeds over the nest, which of course is a great protection. 
* Named after Miss A. Fletcher, of Tasmania. 
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