PODICA PETERSI. 625 
of this Water-hen are from five to six in number, of a yellowish 
white, freely covered with small spots of light brown, with here and 
there a blotch of the same colour. The nest is a mass of grass, 
with its foundation laid on the water, and composed of standing 
stalks bent downwards, with some loose ones added; the hollow in 
which the eggs are laid is three or four inches deep, and has some- 
what the appearance of a shallow inverted sugar-loaf: after the nest 
has been completed, the bird binds the tops of the surrounding 
grasses and ties them together so as to form a partial shelter 
against the sun, as well as to afford concealment.” 
Senor Anchieta has forwarded numerous examples to the Lisbon 
Museum from Humbe on the Cunene River. 
Upper parts, dark olive-green; wings cinereous, the outer edge 
white, the inner rufous; chin and centre of belly light cinereous, 
almost white; the flanks and chest darker ; outermost tail-coverts 
of the under side white ; the inner black; a few white feathers are 
scattered along the flanks; frontal shield and top of the bill near 
the tip, bright crimson; the rest bright greenish-yellow; legs and 
feet the same. Length, 8"; wing, 5”; tail, 22’. 
Mr. Ayres gives the following account of the soft parts :—“ Iris 
light-red; bill greenish-yellow, frontal shield bright red, tarsi and 
feet drab.’ Mr. Frank Oates states that in the male bird killed by 
him the iris was crimson, with a narrow circle of tawny-yellow within 
the iris near the outside. In a female bird the same gentleman 
found the iris “ pale crimson; the bill yellow with a scarlet stripe 
on the top of the upper mandible, the inner one tipped with 
scarlet; the legs being pale yellowish-brown.” 
Fig. (Young) Sclater, Ibis. 1859, pl. 7. 
Fam. HELIORNITHIDA. 
602. Povica peterst, Hartl. Peters’ Fin-foot. 
(Plate xii.) 
This curious bird does not occur in the western parts of the 
‘olony, but our correspondent, Mr. Rickard, has met with it near 
dast London, and notes that the wing is armed with a sharp-curyed 
spine; while Captain Trevelyan tells us that it is not so uncommon 
es 
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