62 BULLETIN OF THE LIVERPOOL MUSEUMS. 
many ornithologists to be only phases of the same species, and that the dark 
phase represents the bird in its adult plumage, while the rufous forms are 
immature birds. The measurements of the dark form, however, in speci- 
mens in the British Museum, are smaller than those of the rufous form, 
a fact rather adverse to the probability of the latter being younger than the 
former. Dr. Bowdler Sharpe considers the rufous forms to be “ perfectly 
adult,” and thinks it must be a ‘“‘ mistake to consider them to be the young 
of the dark phase.” The dark coloured specimens in the National Museum 
“also seem,” according to the same high authority, “to be perfectly adult ; 
but Professor Schlegel has also described [Mus. Pays-Bas, Ardea, p. 56) a 
young bird in the dark plumage. Thus I regard the two birds as phases of 
one species ; but it is quite probable that they may be specifically distinct.” 
The dimensions given by Dr. Sharpe for the British Museum specimens 
show a marked difference in length—3-5 inches—between the the dark and 
the rufous forms. Our specimens, which are all mounted, were set up in the 
days before taxidermy was a “science and art,” and it is, therefore, 
impossible to obtain any satisfactory information by considering them or 
others, unless in a large series, in this aspect ; even the length of the un- 
mounted skin is also always a very uncertain quantity. So in the following 
measurements, set out in comparison with those given for two British Museum 
specimens, I have discarded the length dimensions :-— 






DARK PHASE. RUFOUS PHASE. 
B.M. L.D.M. | Average. | B.M. | L.D.M. | L.D.M. Average. 
Culmen - -| 1°65 1°31 1-48 1°50 | 1-66 1-50 | (265 
Wing - - - 5-70 5°44 557 5-60 | -5°31 5°63 551 
Tal- - - - 2°20*| 168 | 71:94 2°20 1°63 L-63: ese 
Tarsus= -° -|. 1°50 Pa fe 1°81 1:50 2-06 2:00 | 1-85 



The averages of these dimensions, other than ‘ total length,’ go to show a 
very slight difference in size of the one form over the other, so small, indeed, 
that we may infer that they are not due to age. If Professor Schlegel is 
correct as to the age of his specimen, the dark phased birds are dark from 
their youth up. It must still remain, therefore, an undecided question 
whether these two forms belong (a) to the same or different species, (b) to 
the young and the adult, or (c) to the two sexes of the same species. The 
measurements and the figures given here are offered as a small contribution 
to the settlement of these questions. 
II. Note on Lord Stanley’s Water Hen (Porphyrio stanleyi). 
In the Lord Derby Museum there has long reposed an historical specimen 
of a Rail well known to ornithologists as the ‘ White Gallinule’, which was 
brought to Europe by Sir Joseph Banks (afterwards President of the Royal 
Society), one of the naturalists who accompanied Captain Cook in the 
Endeavour on the first of his great voyages. Where the bird was obtained 
is not certainly known; but it is supposed to have been brought from 
New Zealand. It must, however, have reached this country in June, 1771, 
the date of the return of the Endeavour to England. For the succeeding 30 
or 40 years its history cannot be traced ; but it is next heard of in the 
possession of William Bullock, whose Museum was so well known in Liver- 

* By a /apsus calami this measurement is given as of tarsus instead of tail. 

