352 GEOGRAPHICAL ZOOLOGY. [PART iv. 



species ranging over half the globe. They are found in many re- 

 mote islands ; and in some of these as the Gallinula of Tristan 

 d'Acunha, and the Notornis of Lord Howe's Island and New Zea- 

 land, they have lost the power of flight. The classification of 

 the Kallidse is not satisfactory, and the following enumeration of 

 the genera must only be taken as affording a provisional sketch 

 of the distribution of the group : 



Rallus (18 sp.), Porzana (24 sp.), Gallinula (17 sp.), and 

 Fulica (10 sp.), have a world-wide range ; Ortygometra (1 sp.), 

 ranges over the whole North Temperate zone ; Porphyrio (14 sp.), 

 is more especially Oriental and Australian, but occurs also in 

 South America, in Africa, and in South Europe; Eulabeornis 

 (15 sp.), is Ethiopian, Malayan, and Australian; Himantornis (1 

 sp.), is West African only ; Aramides (24 sp.), is North and 

 South American ; Eallina (16 sp.), is Oriental, but ranges east- 

 ward to Papua ; Hdbroptila (1 sp.), is confined to the Moluccas ; 

 Pareudiastes (1 sp.), the Samoa Islands ; Tribonyx (4 sp.), is 

 Australian, and v Ms^ Recently been found also in New Zealand; 

 Ocydromus (4 sp.) ? Notornis (2 sp.)/ (Plate XIII. Vol. I. p. 455) > 

 and Cabalus (1 sp.), are peculiar to the New Zealand group. 



The sub-family, Heliornithinee (sometimes classed as a distinct 

 family) consists of 2 genera, Heliornis (1 sp.), confined to the 

 Neotropical region ; and Podica (4 sp.), the Ethiopian region ex- 

 cluding Madagascar, and with a species (perhaps forming another 

 genus) in Borneo. 



Extinct Rallidce. Remains of some species of this family have 

 been found in the Mascarene Islands, and historical evidence 

 shows that they have perhaps been extinct little more than a 

 century. They belong to the genus Fulica, and to two extinct 

 genera, Aplianapteryx and Erythromachus. The Aphanapteryx 

 was a large bird of a reddish colour, with loose plumage, and 

 perhaps allied to Ocydromus. Erythromachus was much smaller, 

 of a grey-and-white colour, and is said to have lived chiefly on 

 the eggs of the land-tortoises. (See Ibis, 1869, p. 256 ; and 

 Proc. Zool. Soc., 1875, p. 40.) 



