244 GRUIFORMES — CHAP. 
posteriorly, but is reduced to a point in Porphyriops. This 
excrescence is in most cases red, but is sky-blue, light green, or 
dusky in Porphyriola, green in Tribonyz, blackish in Megacrex, 
white, yellow, or brown in Fulica. The lower part of the tibia 
is bare; the anteriorly scutellated metatarsus is seldom short, 
though occasionally very stout; the toes are long and slender with 
the elevated hallux weakest; the claws are fairly long, curved, 
and sharp. Somewhat shorter digits are found in 7ribonyz and 
Pareudiastes, Fulica has broad lobes of skin along the front toes, 
while Porphyriops and Gallinula have narrow entire membranous 
margins to them. The wings are generally short and rounded, 
with ten or eleven primaries, and from eleven to sixteen second- 
aries, all the feathers being obtuse; but in many species these 
members are imperfectly developed, and their coverts actually 
hide the quills in such cases as Ocydromus and Notornis, This 
retrograde tendency is clearly evidenced in the “ Island Hen” of 
Tristan da Cunha (Gallinula or Porphyriornis nesiotis) and the 
“ Mountain Cock” of Gough Island (G. comeri), which flutter 
along without flying; in the Moho of Hawaii (Pennula ecaudata), 
Ocydromus and Notornis of New Zealand, and Habroptila wallacit 
of Halmahera; not to mention Eulabeornis, Porzanula, Nesolimnas, 
Cabalus, Pareudiastes, and the extinct Aphanapteryz, Aptornis, 
Diaphorapteryz, and Erythromachus. In several flightless forms, 
as in the Dodo, the angle between the scapula and the coracoid is 
obtuse.. The tail has from ten to fourteen rectrices, the usual 
number being twelve; these are short and usually soft, frequently 
with decomposed webs, and may be concealed by the coverts, as in 
Megacrexz, Amurolimnas, and Pennula. Its form varies from narrow 
and pointed to comparatively broad and rounded. A large caruncle 
rises behind the frontal shield in Gallierez and Fulica cornuta, two 
knobs being found there in F cristata: the wing, moreover, is 
often armed with a sharp spine. The nasal grooves are commonly 
long and deep; the pervious nostrils being in the hard sheath 
of the bill in Gallinules, and partially covered by a bony or horny 
growth in Rallicula, Pareudiastes, and Thyrorhina. The furcula 
is U-shaped, the tongue lanceolate, the aftershaft very small. 
Down is plentiful in both adults and young, that of the nestlings 
being commonly black, while the chicks of our Moor-Hen and 
Coot have the head adorned with red and blue. Rails, not being 
born blind, run from the shell, and swim at once. 
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