PORPHTRIOLA ALLENI 269 



" At the present time these young birds, which are now about four 

 months old, have the plumage of the upper parts entirely blue, while 

 that of the lower parts is also blue to a great extent, although a few 

 greyish down-feathers still show. The soft parts are now all red, but 

 of rather a duller shade than that of the adult birds. The colour of 

 the iris is now also red." 



Under the name of Porphyrio chloronatus, Loche includes the 

 Green-backed Gallinule (P. smaragdonotus) among the birds of Algeria, 

 as of rare occurrence in that country. There appears to be no record 

 of this species having been met with in Tunisia. 



PORPHYRIOLA ALLENI (Thompson). 

 ALLEN'S GALLINULE. 



Porphyrio alleni, Thompson, Ann. and Matj. Nat. Hist, x, p. 20i (1842). 

 Porphyriola alleni, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxiii, p. 187. 



Description. — Adult, winter, from Catania, Sicily. 



Entire head black ; neck and under-parts, except the under tail-coverts, 

 glossy deep blue ; upper-parts below the neck glossy olive-green, lighter on 

 the back, scapulars, and lesser wing-coverts, and darker elsewhere ; quills 

 with blackish inner webs and bluish outer webs ; under tail-coverts white. 



Bill red ; frontal shield light green ; feet reddish. 



Total length 10 inches, wing 6-10, culmen with shield 1-50, tarsus 2. 



Adult female, similar to the male, but rather smaller. 



The young have the upper-parts brownish, the feathers of the back 

 striped with a darker shade, and the under-parts whitish. 



In the early part of 1903 I received a letter from the naturalist 

 Blanc, informing me that a specimen of a small Porphyrio, which, 

 from his description of the bird, could only have been P. alleni, 

 had been obtained in December, 1902, near Bizerta, in North Tunisia, 

 and had been preserved by him for one of his customers. 



About the same time, as stated in a letter I wrote to the Ibis 

 {Ibis, 1903, p. 431), through the kindness of Mr. Arthur AV. Elford, 

 British Vice-Consul at Catania, Sicily, I obtained a fine example of 

 this species, which had been captured on December 4th, 1902, at 

 the Pantano di Catania, an extensive tract of marshy country near the 



