GRALLATORES. 331 



the genus, its hind-toe and claw being more largely developed 

 than those of any other species ; hence it is beautifully and 

 expressly adapted for traversing the leaves floating on the 

 surface of the water. 



The specimens in my collection were obtained at Port 

 Essington, where this bird is tolerably numerous, but always 

 affects such localities as render it very difficult to procure. 

 Having never seen this species in a state of nature, I cannot 

 do better than transcribe Gilbert's notes respecting it ; pre- 

 vious to which I may mention that it is also a native of New 

 Guinea, and that Temminck published a figure of it in his 

 ' Planches Coloriees,' as quoted above. 



" I did not meet with this bird," says Gilbert, " until the 

 latter part of my stay in the country, just before the wet 

 season set in, when I observed it on the large lake near Point 

 Smith, which at this time (the month of December) contained 

 so little water that I could wade over every part of it ; and it 

 was fortunate that this was the case, for this bird confines 

 itself so much to the muddy parts of the middle of the lake, 

 that it might be looked for in vain from the shores. It 

 would seem- to be a very local species, for I did not meet 

 with it in any other part of the Peninsula. In the following 

 January, after a succession of heavy rains, the lake became so 

 far filled as to be too deep for a person to attempt to cross 

 any part of it, consequently no second opportunity of observing 

 the Parra occurred before my departure. Those observed by 

 me were distributed in four or five small families in different 

 parts of the lake, and were usually occupied in feeding from 

 the floating aquatic plants, over which the great length of 

 their toes and nails enables them to run with great facility : 

 at the slightest alarm they dive down at once or take to flight. 

 Their powers of diving and of remaining under water are 

 equal to those of any bird I have ever met with : on the other 

 h^nd, their powers of flight are very weak ; they will, however, 

 often mount up fifteen or twenty yards, and fly from one end 



