64 BULLETIN OF THE LIVERPOOL MUSEUMS. 
Ashton Lever, whence, on the sale of his collections in 1807, it was purchased 
for the Imperial Cabinet in Vienna, where it now is. Herr Von Pelzeln has 
described it as a species of Notornis—(N. alba). It was therefore a second 
species of Votornis alba that Professor Newton considered our bird to be. Mr. 
Rowley in his Ornithological Miscellany, after re-investigating the question, 
came to the conclusion that our specimen did not belong to the genus Notornis, 
but to Porphyrio, and described it as a new species, P. stunleyi, in honour of its 
former owner. He suggested at the same time that it might after all be but 
an albino of the common Purple Water-Hen of New Zealand (Porphyrio 
melanonotus). To that species it has been relegated by the most recent 
authority, Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, in the XXIIIrd Volume of the Catalogue of 
the Birds in the British Museum, under which P. stanleyi appears as a 
synonym. The facts depended upon by Mr. Rowley, who, if he did not 
inspect the bird personally, as I should presume he did, at all events sent 
Mr. J. G. Keulemans, the distinguished ornithological artist, to Liverpool for 
the purpose of figuring the bird and taking its dimensions, have been some- 
what modified by the more accurate examination of the specimen which the 
present opportunity has rendered possible. 
The puffiness and bagginess of the legs mentioned by Mr. Rowley asa sign 
of the bad state of the skin when it was mounted, was not due to decomposi- 
tion, but solely to the unequal stuffing, rudely sewn up, by which the tibia, 
which had been removed with the carcase, were replaced. 
The following measurements, which have been taken repeatedly and with 
the utmost care, differ somewhat from those taken by Mr. Keulemans on 
Mr. Rowley’s behalf. I have not recorded the ‘ total length’ of the specimens 
as this measurement is very deceptive, being obviously dependent on the 
manner in which the bird was skinned, the make of the skin, and the amount 
of stretching to which it has been subjected :— 

| | | 
| Culmen | | 
and Mid-Toe| Claw |Hind Toe| Claw 
Frontal and of and of 
| Wing. | Shield. | Tarsus. Claw. | Mid-Toe.| Claw. |Hind Toe. 
1. Porphyrio stanleyi - | 9:0 2°44 | 3:0 3°19 | -625 |} 1°50 | -62 
| (Corne- | . 
ous 
| sheath 
| gone). 


2. P. melanonotus ) | 
(from which wing | 
bones (A) have been 
extracted to be mea- 
sured. Length of 
skin about 18 in.). / | 

10°88 | 2°18 | 3°75 | 4:56 | 
iv) 
=I 
bo 
Oo 






3. P. melanonotus, 
Booby Id (Coppin- 
ger) ; fide Sharpe. 
ellie a Fea k 

4. P. melanonotus, | 
Tasmania, Fatal 
which bones (B)‘|10-25 | 2°37 | 3:65 | 4:0 ‘68 1:87 
were extracted to be | 
measured. | 





