Crex plumbea Gray, in Griffith ed. Cuvier (1829), 3, 410.
Porzana tabuensis Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1894), 23, 111
(part).
Porzana plumbea Sharpe, Hand-List (1899), 1, 102; McGregor and
Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 16.
Luzon (Meyer, McGregor). New Hebrides, Australia, New Caledonia,
New Zealand, Chatham, Samoa, and Fiji Islands.
Adult (sexes alike).--Above including wings reddish chocolate-brown;
rump slightly darker; head and neck blackish; sides of face and under
parts dark slate-gray; chin and throat more or less whitish; under
tail-coverts black with white bars; edge of wing, first alula quill,
and first primary white; under wing-coverts mottled with ashy brown
and white. Bill black; iris and eyelids brick-red; legs and feet light
salmon; nails dark brown. Ten specimens from the vicinity of Manila
measure: Length, 165 to 178; wing, 69 to 78 (average 75); tail, 36
to 44 (average 40); exposed culmen, 15 to 19 (average 16); tarsus,
23 to 26 (average 25); middle toe with claw, 29 to 32 (average 31).
"Young.--Differs from the adult in having the throat white and the
center of chest and abdomen for the most part white." (Sharpe.)
At times great numbers of this little rail are sold in the Manila
markets, but I have never taken a specimen in the field.
Genus POLIOLIMNAS Sharpe, 1893.
Tarsus less than middle toe with claw and less than twice the culmen;
plumage of under parts mostly white.