Page:The Emu volume 13.djvu/267

 black-boy (Xanthorrhœa) flat. On either side of the bit of dry ground on which my tent was pitched were tracts of sloppy ground, with dwarf tea-tree, Banksia, Xanthorrhœa, Leptospermum, and long herbage growing profusely all over them. At dusk I heard the notes of a pair of Spotless Crakes which came out to feed as the light faded. I spent the whole of one morning paddling about in water which varied in depth from two to eighteen inches in a vain quest of their breeding place. I saw nothing of the birds nor of their nest; but on 11th November, whilst searching for the nest of another species of bird, on the opposite side of my camping-ground, I came across four eggs of the Crake, laid in an apology for a nest, concealed in a tuft of long grasses and beautiful white-flowering plants. The eggs were placed with their thin ends pointing to the centre, after the manner of a clutch of Plover's eggs. The nest itself was a slight cavity, formed by the half-exposed roots of the surrounding grasses, with a mere pinch of dead grass as a lining. I photographed the eggs in situ. The surrounding ground was totally devoid of water; the nearest pool was a hundred yards away, and rapidly drying up.

A little later in the year I encountered a family (probably six birds) in the Megalurus swamp before mentioned. This party was a noisy one, the individuals continually calling one to the other. The most frequent note resembled the syllable "Quip," sharply uttered in a whistling tone, and one readily imitated. Another very curious sound was frequently uttered, too. I can only compare it to the rattle made by a sewing machine running at a high speed. This can be imitated by pressing the in-doubled tongue against the palate and blowing hard through the nearly closed lips. Another sound resembled a very liquid and bubbling noise; but this was only occasionally uttered. During these observations I had members of the party all around me, and as I tried with more or less success to imitate their notes, one or other would take a peep at me, or run from one clump of reeds to another. They are dainty and pleasing little birds in their movements, and with each step the short little tail is jerked downwards. On the water drying up on this large swamp the Crakes, Bald-Coots, and other aquatic birds repair to a neighbouring bulrush swamp, which I regard as permanent water, and when waiting for a shot at same I often hear their notes, and at times get a glimpse of them on the margins of vegetation beds.

Eggs of the Spotless Crake have been described from specimens taken in Tasmania, or from islands adjacent to Australia; but a photograph of the nest in situ, discovered on the mainland, will not be without interest. (See Plate XX.)

Mr. A. J. North has separated the Western Ground-Parrot from the Eastern form, under the name Pezoporus flaviventris. Information as to the character of the nest and eggs of the Western form became, therefore, desirable. I found it a very difficult bird to study, and the task of finding its nest and eggs trying in the extreme to one's patience. It is absolutely