RALLID 



4% 

 674. Ortygometra pusilla. ( 



Rallus pusillus, PaZZ. IZei*. T^ss. Beic/i. iii, p. 700 (1776). 

 Rallus intemiedius, Hermann, 06s. ZooZ. i, p. 198 (1804). 

 Rallus minutus, Pall. Zoogr. Rosso- Asiat. ii, p. 155 (1811). 

 Rallus bailloni, Vieill. N. Diet. Hist. Nat. xxviii, p. 548 (1819). 

 Gallinula pygmaea, Brelim, Lehrb. Naturg. Eur. Vog. ii, p. 641 (1824). 

 Ortygometra pygmaea, Gurney, Ibis, 1865, p. 273 [Natal] ; id. in 



Andersson's B. Damaral p. 317 (1872) ; Ayres, Ibis, 1873, p. 283, 



1874, p. 107. 



Ortygometra minuta, Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 338 (1867). 

 Porzana pygmaea. Ayres, Ibis, 1877, p. 351. 

 Porzana bailloni, Butler, Feilden and Reid, Zool. 1882, p. 426 ; Sliarpe, 



ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 614 (1884) ; Ay res, Ibis, 1885, p. 346. 

 Porzana intermedia, Sliarpe, Cat. B. M. xxiii, p. 103 (1894) ; Shelley, 



B. Afr. i, p. 176 (1896). 



Porzana obscura, Neumann, Orn. Monatsb. 1897, p. 191. 

 Ortygometra pusilla obscura, Beichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 284 (1900). 



FIG. 78. Head of Ortygometra pusilla. x i 



Description. Adult. General colour above rich olive-brown ; 

 the feathers of the back and wings with black centres and white 

 spots and frecklings ; rump blackish, also with a few white mark- 

 ings ; primaries ashy-brown, the first with a narrow white border 

 along the outer web ; sides of the face and neck, including the ear- 

 coverts, eyebrows and lores, throat and breast, bluish-slate ; abdo- 

 men, flanks and under tail-coverts spotted and banded with white ; 

 under wing-coverts and axillaries ashy, with a few white spots. 



Iris orange to red ; bill dark green, darker along the culmen and 

 at the tip ; legs and feet olive. 



Length 7-25 ; wing 3'5 ; tail 1-75 ; culmen -65; tarsus 1-0. 



The male in winter (October to March) has a somewhat whiter 

 and paler throat. The young bird is rather more rufous in tone 

 above, the sides of the face and eyebrow are rufous-brown ; lores 



