5 I 8 MOOR-HEN. 



allied representative, G. galeafa, is found in America, and G. sand- 

 vicencis inhabits the Hawaiian Islands ; while G. tenebrosa, which 

 has no white stripes on the flanks, is the Australian species. 



The nest is generally built in wet places, among reeds, sedge and 

 other aquatic plants or on the roots of alders : but it is often placed 

 on branches of trees and thorn-bushes over water, even twenty feet or 

 more from the ground. The materials employed are dry reed-flags 

 {Typha), sedge «S:c., matted together, and the birds have been known to 

 raise the structure when an inundation was threatened. The eggs, 7-9 

 in number, are bufifish-white speckled with reddish-brown : measure- 

 ments I '65 by I '2 in. Incubation, which lasts three weeks, some- 

 times begins in March, and two if not three broods are produced in 

 the season ; the young from the first nest assisting their parents in 

 building another, and even in taking care of the second brood. The 

 Moor-hen usually feeds on slugs, worms, grass, grain when procur- 

 able, insects and their larvce ; but it will also devour the young of 

 other water-fowl, and is very pugnacious towards the latter, as well 

 as to members of its own species. The call-note is a loud crek-rek- 

 rek, several times repeated, especially towards evening. 



The adult has the fore part of the bill yellow, base and frontal 

 plate red ; irides reddish-hazel ; upper parts chiefly dark olive- 

 brown ; head, neck and under parts dark iron-grey, with some white 

 streaks on the flanks ; belly and vent greyish ; median tail-coverts 

 black, in strong contrast with the conspicuously white lower coverts : 

 legs greenish-yellow, with a red garter above the tarsal joint. Length 

 13 in. ; wing 675. Young birds have the beak, frontal plate, and 

 legs dull green ; throat white ; under parts ash-grey ; upper surface 

 greyish-olive. 



The Purple Gallinule {Porphyria cceriikus), the Green-backed 

 Gallinule {P. smaragdonotiis), the Indian P. poliocephalus and the 

 Australian P. melatiotus are frequently kept in semi-captivity, and 

 individuals which have escaped or, which have been deliberately 

 turned out, have from time to time been captured in our Islands. 

 The bird from the south-west of Ireland recorded by Thompson as 

 a " Martinique Gallinule " has proved to be P. s/na7-agdonotus, but 

 there is said to be a genuine example of the American species in 

 Mr. Hart's Museum at Christchurch. 



