of the Mascarene Islands. 155 



much longer and very much thinner than in our bird; 4thly, 

 Flamingos have a tail which is much shorter, has a different 

 shape, and is never carried erect ; 5thly, the legs in the 

 Flamingo are much longer and for the greater part bare, whereas 

 in our bird they are covered svith feathers pretty nearly as 

 far as the tarsus; 6thly, the Flamingo has much shorter fore- 

 toes, united by a swimming-membrane, and an extremely small 

 hind-toe, whereas in our bird, both according to the figure and 

 to the description, the toes are extraordinarily long and quite 

 free ; 7thly, the colour of the Flamingo is in the young grey, 

 in the old more or less generally red, and never white as in our 

 bird ; 8thly and lastly, the whole of Strickland's supposition fails, 

 seeing that, as we have mentioned above, Leguat knew very 

 well what sort of appearance a Flamingo had. 



For ourselves we do not hesitate a moment to declare that 

 this Geant of Leguat's was a Waterhen, and this for the 

 following reasons : — 1st, this bird has the habitus of the Water- 

 hens to such a degree that anybody who has a little experience 

 in the recognition of animal-forms will take it for one; 2ndly, 

 the extraordinarily long toes argue to the same conclusion ; 3rdly, 

 the form of the tail, with the under-coverts reaching to its end, 

 and its erect attitude, is exactly as in the AVaterhens ; 4thly, 

 Leguat's figure shows distinctly that the upper mandible was 

 prolonged in a kind of rounded plate, which extended over the 

 forehead and eyes, just as we see in the more typical Water- 

 hens, namely Gallinula, Porphyrio, and Fulica; 5thly and lastly, 

 Leguat's expressions " gibier " and " assez bon " can also be 

 applied to the Waterhens. 



When we have agreed that this bird belongs to the family of 

 Waterhens — and I really do not know in what other group we 

 could with any probability place it — then arises the question, 

 under what genus of this family could we more positively 

 arrange it. That it cannot be regarded as a Coot {Fulica) its 

 toes, not bordered by lobed membranes, show. It should 

 therefore be assigned rather to the genus Porphyrio or Gallinula ; 



d'Inde, et le bee aussi," we, in like manner, do not conclude that these 

 parts were formed exactly as in the Turkey, but that they had a general 

 resemblance. 



