PORPHYRIO BEMMELENI. 191 



NOTE XXXVII. 

 ON A NEW SPECIES OF GALLINULE. 



BY 



J. BÜTTIKOPER. 



Some days ago our Museum received a probably fully 

 adult female of Porphyrio , kiudly sent by Mr. A. A. van 

 Bemmelen, the able Director of the Zoological Garden at 

 Rotterdam , with the assurance , that the bird had been 

 caught at and sent from the Lake Toba in the Interior of 

 Sumatra. 



Peculiarly enough there is hitherto no evidence published 

 as to the occurrence of a Porphyrio in Sumatra , except by 

 Cassin in U. S. Exploring Expedition , Ornith. p. 308 , 

 where, treating of P. indicus , the author says that the 

 Museum of the Philadelphia Academy contains specimens 

 from Java , Sumatra and other islands of the Malay Ar- 

 chipelago. As Porphyrio indicus Horsf. (P. calvus Vieill.) 

 has also been found in Borneo , I was much astonished to 

 see that our Sumatran bird differs not only from this, but 

 also from both the known species from the Continent, though 

 those latter may be considered to be its nearest allies. 



According to Elliot's Monograph of the genus Porphyrio 

 (Stray Feathers, 1878, p. 6), the Gallinules from the Con- 

 tinent belong to two gray-headed species; P. poliocephalus 

 (Lath.) = P. neglectus Schl. , inhabiting Ceylon and India 

 from the Bay of Bengal to Tenasserim, and P. edwardsi 

 Ell. from Cochin-China. 



Although very closely allied to both above mentioned 

 species , especially to the second , our Sumatran bird dif- 



Notes from the Ijeyden Museum, Vol. XI. 



