250 Mr. J. H. Gurney's List of a Collection of Birds 



this Gallinule, which he procured in Natal, but did not shoot 

 it himself. 



59. PoDiCA PETERSii, Hartlaub. Peters's Finfoot. 



Rare, and exceedingly shy. Frequents the rocky streams 

 of the interior of the country ; can scarcely rise from the water; 

 generally flies along the surface, aiding itself with its feet, which 

 are lobed ; when disturbed it hides under the banks, similarly 

 to the Moor-hen in England. The legs are bright red, and the 

 eye dark. Feeds on freshwater shrimps and small fish. 



[This species, which is considerably larger than the P. senega- 

 lensis of West Africa, was described by Dr. Hartlaub in 1851, 

 under the name of Podica petersii, in honour of Professor Peters, 

 who first discovered it in Mozambique, and who subsequently 

 (in 1856) himself described it under the name of Podica mo- 

 sambica. It has also been designated by Lichtenstein, in the 

 Berlin Museum, Heliornis impipi {vide note on Podica senega- 

 lensis in Hartlaub^s ' Ornithology of West Africa,^ p. 250). 



During the breeding-season, the feathers on the crown of the 

 head, the nape of the neck, and the upper part of the back of 

 this bird, which are ordinarily of an olive-brown colour, show an 

 edging of bluish-black with a metallic lustre. 



consider it new. It is a typical Gallinula of small size, whence I propose 

 to call it 



Galunula pumila, sp. nov. 



Supra saturate umbrino-bninnea, cer%'ice, uropj'gio laterali et alis externe 



cinerascentibus : subtus albicanti-cinerea, gula pallidiore, albicante ; 



pectore et ventris lateribus brunneo peifusis : cauda nigra, hujus 



rectricibus extus brunnescente vix tinctis ; caudae tectricibus infe- 



rioribus, crissum nigrum circumdantibus, albis : hypochondriis ciue- 



rasceuti-brunneis, plumis quibusdam albis ornatis : rostro flavo, cul- 



mine brunnescente : scuto frontali trigono, verticem versus colore 



coccineo terminate : pedibus pallide flavicanti-brunneis : long, tota 



9'7, alae 50, caudaj 25, tarsi 15. 



The frontal shield of this bird is terminated in two straight lines which 



form the sides of an isosceles and nearly equilateral triangle, with a line 



drawn across the culmen and joining the points where the feathering 



terminates for its base. The edge of this shield next to the feathers 



appears to have been bright crimson in the living bird. The long white 



spots on the elongated feathers of the flanks, and black crissum surrounded 



by the pure white subcaudals, are highly characteristic of the genus of 



which it is a member. Mr. Wolf's drawing (Plate VII.) will, I think, 



render the species easily recognizable. 



