RALLID.E FULICA 269 



. Adult. General colour above an oily olive green 

 becoming dusky on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; primaries 

 dusky, the outer one edged with dirty white, the others with bluish- 

 green ; head blackish with a purple gloss ; the feathers of the under 

 surface of the body purplish tipped with pale fulvous, giving a 

 somewhat mottled appearance to that parb, chin and centre of 

 breast and abdomen paler, almost pure white ; under tail-coverts 

 white, axillaries black. 



Iris red, bill reddish-brown, frontal shield dusky, legs crimson- 

 red. 



Length about 10*0 ; wing 5*75 ; tail 2-25 ; tarsus 2-05 ; middle toe 

 2-5 ; culmen 2*45. 



A young bird has the crown of the head reddish-brown, the 

 feathers of the back and wing-coverts margined with dark ochra- 

 ceous ; the sides of the head and lower surface are deep ochraceous 

 buff, becoming darker on the flanks and under tail-coverts, and 

 paler on the chin and centre of the breast and abdomen. 



Distribution. Allen's Reed Hen is found throughout the greater 

 part of Africa (including Madagascar), from Senegal and Abyssinia 

 southwards ; it has occasionally even been met with in southern 

 Europe. It is a very rare bird in South Africa, and has only been 

 once found south of the Vaal River ;* the following are the recorded 

 occurrences : Cape Colony Knysna, July (Marais) ; Transvaal 

 Hex River near Rustenburg, December (Lucas) ; Bechuanaland 

 Tebra country, near Lake Ngarni, April (Eriksson in S. A. Mus.) ; 

 Rhodesia Gwibi River, near Salisbury, December (Marshall) ; 

 German South-west Africa Ondonga, February (Andersson) ; Por- 

 tuguese East Africa Tete (Peters). 



Genus X. FULICA. 



Type. 

 Fulica, Brisson, Orn. vi, p. 23 (1760) F. atra. 



Bill stout and somewhat compressed, culmen with a large frontal 

 shield about two-thirds of the length of the middle toe ; nostrils elon- 

 gated ovals ; wings short and rounded, the first primary about as 

 long as the secondaries ; tarsus markedly shorter than the middle 

 toe without claw, provided posteriorly with a membranous ridge or 



* Mr. J. G. Brown informs me that this bird is rare near Port Elizabeth; 

 while the South African Museum has recently received an example shot near 

 Towns River Station, in August last, by Dr. A. H. B. Kirkman. 



