220 AVES GRALLATORES. [GALLINULA. 



one inch seven lines and a half; from the carpus to the end of the wing 

 three inches ten lines and a half. 



DESCRIPT. (Adult male.) Throat, sides of the head and neck, breast 

 and helly, deep bluish gray, without spots : crown of the head, and all 

 the upper parts, olivaceous green, with the centres of the feathers dusky ; 

 on the back a large blackish patch, marked with a few longitudinal white 

 streaks : abdomen and flanks with indistinct transverse bars of white and 

 brown; under tail-coverts black, barred with white: bill longer and more 

 slender than in the last species, of a fine sap-green, somewhat reddish at 

 the base : irides red : legs and toes sap-green. (Adult female.) Sides of 

 the head pale cinereous ; throat whitish ; front of the neck, breast and 

 belly, reddish ash; thighs and abdomen cinereous; under tail-coverts 

 tipped with white ; all the upper parts reddish brown ; on the back 

 a large dusky patch, sparingly spotted with white ; wing-coverts oliva- 

 ceous ash. (Young.) Colours paler; the whole of the throat whitish; 

 fore-neck and upper breast light buff; the white marks on the upper 

 part of the back very few in number; flanks brown, with transverse 

 white bars. (Egg.) Light olive-brown, spotted with darker brown : long, 

 diam. one inch two lines ; trans, diam. nine lines and a half. 



Like the last, a very rare and only occasional visitant in this country. 

 Montagu's specimen was shot near Ashburton, in Devonshire, in 1809. 

 Others have been since killed in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Cambridgeshire, 

 and Norfolk. Common in the eastern parts of Europe. Haunts and food 

 similar to those of the last species. Nest said to be placed amongst reeds 

 and other aquatic herbage. Eggs seven or eight in number. Obs. The 

 Olivaceous Gallinule of Montagu is supposed to be the adult state, and 

 the Little Gallinule of the same author the young, of this species. 



GEN. 85. GALLINULA, Lath. 



220. G. chloropus, Lath. (Common Gallinule.) 

 Plumage above deep olive-brown ; beneath blackish gray ; 

 ridge of the wing, and under tail-coverts, white. 



G. chloropus, Temm. Man. d'Orn. torn. n. p. 693. Common Galli- 

 nule, Mont. Orn. Diet. Bew. Brit. Birds, vol. n. p. 137. Sclb. 

 Ittwt. vol. n. p. 188. pi. 31. 



DIMENS. Entire length thirteen inches : length of the bill (from the 

 base of the frontal disk) one inch five lines, (from the gape) one inch one 

 line and a half; of the tarsus one inch eleven lines; of the middle toe 

 two inches eight lines and a half; of the tail two inches eleven lines ; 

 from the carpus to the end of the wing six inches nine lines : breadth, 

 wings extended, twenty inches ten lines. 



DESCRIPT. Head, throat, neck, and upper part of the breast, dusky 

 gray ; rest of the under parts deep bluish gray, the feathers on the belly 

 and abdomen edged with grayish white : upper parts dark olive : flanks 

 with large longitudinal streaks of white : ridge of the wing, and under 

 tail-coverts, pure white, the latter with a few black feathers intermixed : 

 frontal disk, and base of the bill, red ; tip of the bill yellow : irides red : 

 legs and toes olive-green : on the naked part of the tibia a red circle. 

 (Young, till after the second autumnal moult.) Crown of the head and 

 nape, as well as the rest of the upper parts, olivaceous brown : throat, 

 front of the neck, and a spot beneath the eye, whitish; breast, belly, 



