KALLIDJ5 



POKPHYKIO 



267 



Description. Adult Male. Centre of the back, some of the inner 

 secondaries, scapulars and upper tail-coverts olive-green, tail rather 

 darker ; back of the head and neck, wing-coverts, breast, flanks, 

 thighs and abdomen a rich purplish-blue ; primaries dusky, edged 

 with blue ; sides of the head, throat and upper breast azure blue ; 

 under tail-coverts pure white. 



Iris red ; bill and frontal shield crimson-red with the tip and the 

 lower portion of the lower mandible red-brown ; legs rose-pink. 



Length about 18-0 ; wings 9-35 ; tail 3-25 ; tarsus 3'6 ; middle toe 

 4-25 ; culmen and frontal shield 2-6. 



FIG. 85. Head of Porphyrio madagascariensis. x \} 



The female resembles the male, but is perhaps a trifle smaller ; 

 a young bird only differs from the adult in being duller in colour 

 throughout. 



Distribution. This handsome bird is spread over the greater 

 part of Africa and Madagascar ranging northwards to Egypt, and 

 even occasionally to Southern Europe. Throughout South Africa 

 it is widely distributed wherever suitable conditions are found, from 

 the neighbourhood of Cape Town, where it is far from uncommon, 

 to the Cunene. It has not hitherto been noticed in Ehodesia, 

 though doubtless it will eventually be found there. 



The following are localities : Cape Colony Cape, Bredasdorp, 

 and Knysna divisions (S. A. Mus.), Berg River (Layard), Uitenhage 

 (Rickard) ; Natal Zeekoe Lake, near Durban (Woodward), New- 

 castle (Butler), Upper Tugela Valley (Stark), Zululand (Bt. Mus.) ; 



