146 RALLID^. 
208. PoRPHYRio HYAciNTHiNUS, Temiii. The Purple 
Waterhen. 
Moorish. Kazir (FG^'^er) . Spanish. Mancon azul, Calamon. 
" This bird is chiefly migratory, and is not common near 
Tangier, passing north during the months of February and 
March, and returning in December and October. They are 
occasionally to be seen during the month of January, but 
not every year. Those which remain for the breeding-season 
construct their nests in the midst of wet sedges or rushes, 
depositing (in April) from three to five eggs. When these 
birds are moulting they are very easy to obtain, as they 
lose all their quill -feathers at once, and so cannot fly.^^ — 
Favier. 
The Purple Waterhen (a large and very handsome bird) is, 
on the Spanish side of the Straits, very irregular in its 
appearance both as to time and locality. In some years, 
during January and February, they are to be seen near 
Gibraltar in situations where they do not occur at any other 
time, and are then, doubtless, on migration. 
In wet seasons they nest at Casa Vieja in April, in the Soto 
Malabrigo, in which marsh I have shot them as late as the 
27th of October. It is a very difficult bird to flush without 
a dog ; M^hen they rise they make a flapping noise, and with 
a heavy flight merely take refuge in the nearest thick patch 
of rushes or wet sedgy jungle, whence, from being Crake- like 
in their habits, it is almost impossible to make them rise a 
second time. They are not to be met Avith except among 
thick wet rushes. Some are to be found in a few places at 
the edge of the marismas of the Guadalquivir. The nest 
resembles that of the common Coot ; and the eggs, which are 
richly coloured, are laid towards the end of April. 
The gizzards of those which I have examined contained 
nothing but vegetable matter (grass, seeds of rushes, &c.), 
with a good deal of coarse gravel. 
