RAILS. 131 



The purple-gallinules, as typified by the European species (Porpkyrio porphyrio) 

 and the American lonornis martinica, are stoutly built birds with a high and 

 strong bill, frontal shield, long toes without lateral membrane, and a beautiful plu- 

 mage mostly of a brilliant blue color. The long toes enable them to walk readily 

 over the water plants, and " the large foot is frequently employed to hold the food, 

 very much in the manner of a parrot, while the bird is eating." 



Precisely the same relation as have the wekas to the true rails is held by Nbtornis 

 and Aptornis, the latter entirely extinct, the former only partially so, to the purple 

 gallinules. On account of the peculiarities caused by the reduction of the wings they 

 might be regarded as rather distinct, but recent discoveries and examination of ample 

 material has shown them to be quite Ralline, though Aptornis, in its sternal modifi- 

 cations (the breadth of the breast-bone being greatly reduced and the place of the 

 keel only "indicated by a mere low obtuse ridge), has departed further from the exist- 

 ing forms." Nbtornis is entirely extinct on the northern island of New Zealand, 

 but on the southern island three living specimens of the 'moho,' or 'pukeko,' 

 (JV. mantelli) have been taken within this century up to a very recent date. The last 

 survivors of this doomed bird have been taken in localities nearly a hundred miles 

 apart, and at intervals of twenty-two, and twelve years, so that possibly a few more 

 may still be alive in some secluded spot. The first specimen was taken by seal-fishers 

 in 1847, the third one by a rabbit-hunter in 1881. 



A gentle transition to the true gallinules is formed by the so-called Hcibroptila 

 wallacii from the Moluccan island Gilolo, a form with a remarkable lax plumage, and 

 so short and weak wings, that it must be unable to fly, meeting in this respect a true 

 gallinule from the Samoan Islands, which Hartlaub and Finscli have called Pareudi- 

 astes pacificus. The large eyes indicate nocturnal habits, and Mr. S. J. Whitmee 

 tells that the natives positively assured him that the ' punahe ' burrows in the ground 

 and nests in the burrow. It was formerly more common, and is, like all birds deprived 

 of flight, and confined to a restricted locality, doomed to an early extinction. The 

 gallinules proper, as represented by our so-called Florida gallinule (Gallinula gal- 

 eata) and the European moor-hen ( G. chloropus) form a small group scattered all over 

 the warmer and temperate regions of the globe. A near relative of the last-mentioned 

 species, which lives on the lonely island Tristan d'Acunha in the South Atlantic, and 

 has been described by Dr. Sclater as G. nesiotis is worth mentioning, since it most 

 conclusively illustrates the effect of isolation by reducing the sternal apparatus and the 

 power of flight, concomitant with increasing the size and the strength of the hind ex- 

 tremities. In the external appearance and coloration the ' island-hen ' differs only 

 little from the moor-hen, which may be regarded as the parent stock, but the form is 

 shorter and thicker, and the legs stouter, though the toes are not longer. The wing, 

 however, is shorter, and the feathers remarkably soft and inferior in size. Still more 

 striking are the differences in the skeleton, for in G. chloropus the proportion between 

 the size of the breast-bone to that of the pelvis is as 4|- to 4, while in G. nesiotis it is as 

 3f to 5 ; in other words, in the former the breast-bone is larger than the pelvis, in the 

 latter the pelvis is larger than the breast-bone. It is therefore easy to understand 

 that the specimen which was brought alive to London could only " flutter a little, but 

 obviously uses its legs and not its wings as a mode of escape from its enemies." 



The last and most specialized groups of the Rallidae consist of the coots, exempli- 

 fied by our American species, Fulica america, to which is closely related the Euro- 

 pean coot, F. atra. The character which at once distinguishes them from the other 



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