633 



RALLIDJE. 



RALLID.E. 



3t 



The species are numerous in South America ; some in India ; and 

 a few in Africa. 



P. Africans. Deep cinnamon above ; crown of the head naked ; 

 throat white; breast fulvous; neck and quills black; spur on the 

 wing obsolete. 



It has been found in Africa, Abyssinia (Bruce), Mozambique (Salt), 

 Western Africa (Swainson, on the authority of Ward), South Africa 

 (Smith). 



The strong bony spur with which the wing is armed in the typical 

 species, becomes so small in P. Africana, that it is hardly perceptible 

 when the wing is closed. In another African species, P. Capensis, 

 the spur or spine has become a small tubercle. The African Jacanas 

 may therefore be referred to the aberrant group of this genus. Dr. 

 Smith only met with one individual of P. Capensil, and he strongly 

 suspects that is was in immature plumage. It was killed while 

 seeking for its food upon some water-plants which coated the surface 

 of a small river near Algoa Bay, and he has figured the bird standing 

 on a leaf of a water-lily. He notices P. Africana as the only other 

 species of the group which has yet been found in Southern Africa, 

 and states that it never ranges so far to the westward as the Cape 

 Colony, though it is often found to the westward of Port Xatul. 



Porpkyrio. Bill short, strong, high ; the base dilated into a flat 

 plate on the front of the head ; the culmen arched. Nostrils large, 

 basal, covered by a membrane, naked ; the aperture terminal and 

 oval. Feet very large. Toes without any lateral membrane. Claws 

 large, slightly curved. (Sw.) 



These birds live nearly like the Water-Hens, to which they are most 

 closely approximated : like them, their habitual haunts are the fresh- 

 waters ; but the immense rice-fields and marshes of the south equally 

 serve them for an asylum and retreat. More inclined by their appetite 

 to cereal grains and plants, than aquatic herbs, the Porphyries frequent 

 the land more than the Water-Hens ; they move with grace on the 

 water, and run with elegance and swiftness on the land or over the 

 plants which grow in the water. Their body is not so compressed 

 nor so slender as that of the water-hens ; their formidable bill, com- 

 posed of a very hard substance, and nearly without a nasal fossa, 

 which is covered by a membrane, serves them as an instrument for 

 cracking the husks of grains and breaking the hardest stems ; their 

 feet, which they use to seize their food and convey it to their bill, 

 are provided with very long toes, easily retractile, and with nails 

 which bend alao with some facility, which gives them a power of 

 prehension. A brilliant plumage, where blue or a turquoise hue 

 predominates, clothes the greatest number of the known species. 



It is not clear what species of this genus was known to the 

 ancients, who held it in high estimation. The Porphyrio does not 

 appear to have been sought after for any other purpose than that of 

 keeping it alive ; indeed .Elian states that be never heard of one 

 being served at any banquet. Pliny (' Hist Nat.,' x. 46 and 49) 

 speaks of the Porphyrios as ' laudatisaimi in Comagene,' and says that 

 their bill and long legs are red ; the Balearic Islands are also named 

 by him as a place whence they were sent to Rome. He speaks of 

 their peculiar mode of drinking, their soaking their food in water 

 and raising it to their bills in their claws ; " Bibunt aves suctu, ex his 

 quibus longa colla, intermittentes, et capite resupinato velut infun- 

 deutes sibi. Porphyrio solus morsu bibit, idem est proprio genere, 

 omnetn cibum aqua subinde tingens, delude pede ad rostrum veluti 

 inunit aflerens." 



But there was another quality which was supposed to reside in the 

 Porphyrio, which made it both a highly prized and dangerous inmate. 

 The bird was considered as a kind of guard over the women of the 

 house in which it was domiciled : it was believed that it took notice 

 of adultery, and that if the crime was committed, it would give 

 notice to tbe master of the house by making signs as if it wished to 

 strangle itself. It is to thii that the old quatrain alludes in the 

 ' Portraits d'Oyseaux : ' 



" Porphyrion declare I'adultere 



Fait au logis auqucl on 1'entretiont : 

 Car k CM fins tous lei semblans Us ticnt 

 De ss vouloir estrangler et deffaire." 



P. hyacinthinui (Potto Sultana, Savi). Bill fine red ; lega and feet 

 fleshy red ; irides lake-red ; cheeks, throat, sides of the neck, and 

 chest turquoise-blue ; remainder of the plumage deep dull indigo- 

 blue, having the edges of the greater and lesser coverts of the wings 

 lighter in colour and more brilliant; under tail-coverts white. 

 (Gould.) 



Young of the .Year. Belly, till the month of October, white ; 

 occiput yellowish-brown ; median part of the head whitish ; mantle 

 bluish-ash. Feet reddish-olive. At the time of the moult, which 

 takes pla"e towards the end of October, individuals are found in a 

 itato of transition from the livery of youth to that of >the adult : 

 early in May the rich blue plumage is complete. (Temm.) 



" Independently of the southern and eastern parts of Europe, the 

 marshes of which are tlie places of constant resort for this beautiful 

 bird, it range is extended," says Mr. Gould, " over a great portion of 

 Africa to the south, and as far as the mountains of the Himalaya to 

 the east. In Europe it in especially abundant in the Grecian Archi- 



pelago, the Levant, and the Ionian Islands ; it is less common iu 

 Dalmatia and Sardinia. The southern provinces of Hungary and 

 Russia and the borders of the Caspian Sea may also be enumerated 

 among its European localities." M. Temmiuck states that it is to be 

 seen in many cities of Sicily (where, according to M. Cantraine, it is 

 very common in the neighbourhood of Lentini), that it is not known 

 in Dalmatia nor Calabria, and is rare in Sardinia ; and that it is known 

 in Catania under the name of Gallo-Fagiano. 



Porphyrio Jiyaciiithintts. 



Mr. Gould states that, like the Water-Hen, or Common Galliuule, 

 this species dwells on the borders of rivers and in all marshy situa- 

 tions. In its food it is partly herbivorous, feeding on various kinds 

 of marine vegetables ; still, as the robust and hard character of its 

 bill implies, it prefers hard seeds and grain, to which are added snails, 

 frogs, and other aquatic animals. 



" Although its form," continues Mr. Gould, " would seem to deny 

 the fact, its actions and appearance on the land are both elegant and 

 graceful. It is extremely quick in all its movements, running with 

 ease and swiftness ; and from the great expansion of its feet, it is 

 enabled to pass with facility over soft oozy mud, aquatic herbage, &c. ; 

 but although much agility characterises this species on land, its 

 aerial evolutions are heavy, and apparently performed with consider- 

 able difficulty." M. Temminck states that it lives in the marshes 

 where the water is not deep, and that its stupidity is such that when 

 closely pursued it buries its head in the mud. M. Verneuil informed 

 him that solitary individuals are sometimes found in Dauphino" ; that 

 of the museum of Grenoble was, he adds, killed in the marshes af 

 Burgundy. 



It breeds in marahes, much in the manner of the Common Gallinule, 

 giving preference to the sedgy parts of the morass and partly inundated 

 rice-fields, where it constructs a nest of aquatic plants, and lays three 

 or four white and nearly round eggs. (Gould.) 



Fulica. Bill as in the Porphyrio, but more slender; the base 

 straight ; the gonys short and angulated. Feet very large ; the toes 

 margined with a lateral membrane, which is either narrow and of 

 equal breadth or dilated into lobes. The natatorial type. (Sw.) 



F. atra. It is the Foulque, Macroule, or Morrelle, of the French ; 

 Schwarzes Wasserhuhn of the Germans ; Meir Koet of the Nether- 

 landers ; Folaga and Folacra of the Italians ; Blas-Klacka of tho 

 Swedes ; Vand-Hoene and Bles-Hoene of the Danes ; J4r Ddwfr Foel 

 of the Welsh ; and Coot of the English. Some have thought that it " 

 is the KtwQos of Aristotle. 



The head and neck are of a deep-black ; upper parts slaty-black ; 

 all the lower parts bluish-ash ; frontal plate very wide, pure white ; 

 bill white, slightly tinged with rose-colour; iris crimson-red; feet 

 ash-colour, tinged with greenish, but of a yellow or greenish-red above 

 the knee. 



The sexes do not differ, excepting that in the female and tho young 

 the frontal plate is less developed, and that in the latter, after tho 

 autumnal moult, the lower parts are slightly tinged with reddish. 

 Before the moult, the frontal plate of the young is hardly apparent, 

 and that and the bill are greenish-ash; all the lower parts are 

 whitish-ash : in this state it is, according to M. Temminck, Fulica 

 jfZthiops, Sparm. ; Gmel. 



It is found throughout Europe, in mavshe?, lakes, and gulfs ; very 

 abundant in Holland and iu the lakes of the interior of France ; less 

 numerous in Germany and Switzerland. Dr. Von Siebold and 

 M. Burger saw it in Japan. 



