PETANE SWAMP—THE BANDED RAIL 87 
once but many times I have been given birds thus 
captured and carried in alive; many museum 
specimens, too, have been obtained in this way. 
With one exception, the nests, perfect or other- 
wise, were built preferably over water in very 
thick-matted layers of rush. The exceptional nest 
was built into a tall densely-tufted niggerhead. 
The nests themselves are rude structures composed 
entirely of broken, dry, brittle rush-stems. Above 
several of them, in addition to the usual natural 
protection, there had evidently been a rude 
attempt at bower-building. Green rushes had 
been pulled together, as the Pukeko gathers and 
entwines over its nest long grasses and tall raupo 
blades. Four or five eggs is the number laid. They 
are smaller than those of the Pukeko, and more 
rounded. The ground colour is light stone, hand- 
somely marked with spots and blotches, ranging 
from dark purple to brown and faint grey. Spots 
are most numerous at the thick end of the egg. 
From the heaps of droppings and from the 
appearance of the trampled vegetation about the 
nest, I imagine that the habits of this Rail re- 
semble generally those of his relative the Pukeko. 
Like the Pukeko, too, the Banded Rail leaves 
his bath with a series of leaps and bounds; like 
the Pukeko also, he dries his wings by stretching 
them over his back, fully exposed to the sun. 
Of calls, by far the most frequent is one some- 
