Note 17 — A SOUTHERN CROSS FAIRY TALE.

Swamp Hen. Pukeko. (Porphyrio melanotus.)—About the size of a fowl: plumage of a black and blue colour, with a red bill and long red legs. These birds inhabit swamps, or the shallow shores of lakes, where they stalk about with tails erect, their white undercoverts showing out conspicuously from the dark plumage. Where they are often disturbed, a few are always on the watch, whilst others feed, and on the approach of danger the watchers give a note of alarm and all disappear in the swamp. When plentiful near a cultivation they are destructive to crops of grain, as they eat the young shoots.—A. R.