AVES. ' 393 



Podoa Illig., Heliorms Bonn AT., Gray. Bill moderate, com- 

 pressed, carinate; nostrils pervious, lateral. Wings with third 

 quill, or with third, fourth, and fifth quills the longest. Tail 

 rounded. Feet short, with toes elongate, lobate. Neck elongate. 



a) Tail broad. Toes conjoined at the base. 



Sp. Podoa surinamensis, Plotus surinamensis Gm., Buff. PI. enl. 893, Less. 

 Omith. PL 107, fig. 2. 



b) Tail narrow. Toes lobate, free at the base. 



Another larger species of the size of a duck : Podoa senegalensls Lesson, 

 Gray Gen. of Birds, PI. clxxiii. ; from the west coast of Africa. Not 

 long ago a third species from Malacca was made known, Podoa {Podica) 

 ■personata Gray, Proceed, of the Zool. Soc. 1848, p. 90. 



These birds neither belong to Plotus, nor ought they to be placed with 

 Podiceps; the skeleton of the African species in the Leyden Museum 

 indicates in the small flat sternum, the short wing-bones (os humeri, radius 

 and ulna) and other peculiarities, the nearest correspondence with Fulica. 



i^M?zca Beiss., Illig. (species from gen. FulicaJj.). Bill mode- 

 rate; upper mandible gradually deflected, thick, compressed, extend- 

 ing into an unplumed shield over the forehead. Nostrils pervious, 

 lateral, placed in the middle of bill. Wings short, with second and 

 third quills longest of all. Tail short. Feet moderate, with toes 

 very long, lobate. 



Sp. Fulica atra L. (and aferrima ejusd.), Buff. PI. enl. 197, Lesson Oi-nith. 

 PI. 106, fig. 2, Naum. Taf. 241 ; the common coot, la foulque ou morelle, 

 das Wasserhuhn; black, belly slate-coloured, shield on the head white; the 

 size of a hen. The coot lives on insects, worms and water-plants, and lays 

 eight or more eggs in a nest tliat floats amongst the bulrushes. This bird 

 migrates from us (Holland) in November and returns in March; in more 

 southern countries of Europe it is a pennanent bird, 



Fovphyrio Briss., Temm. (species of Fulica L.). Bill shorter 



than head, high, compressed, continued into a shield extending 



over the forehead. Nostrils rounded, lateral, pervious. Wings 



moderate. Feet long, strong. Toes very long, surromided by a 



narrow membrane. 



Sp. Porphyria veterum Gm., Porphyria hyacinthinus Temm., Edwards Birds, 

 PI. 87, Less. Omith. PI. 105, fig. 2 ; in Sardinia, Calabria and the Grecian 

 Archipelago; the Porphyria of the ancients {Laudatissima et nobilissima 

 avis, cui rostrum et pralonga crura rubent. Plinius Lib. x. c. 46; comp. 

 also c. 49). With this bird of southern Europe a species from South 

 Africa is commonly confounded, Porphyria Madagascariensis Lath., Por- 

 phyria smaragnotusTT^M.^., Fulica pmphyrio L., Buff. PI. enl. 810, Guer. 

 Iconogr., Ois. PI. 58, fig. 2. — Porphyria indicus HoRSF., Porphyria 

 smaragdinus Temm. PI. color. 421, occvirs at Java, &c. 



