244 GRUIFORMES CHAP. 



posteriorly, but is reduced to a point in Porphyriops. This 

 excrescence is in most cases red, but is sky-blue, light green, or 

 dusky in Porphyriola, green in Tribonyx, blackish in Megacrex, 

 white, yellow, or brown in Fulica. The lower part of the tibia 

 is bare ; the anteriorly scutellated metatarsus is seldom short, 

 though occasionally very stout ; the toes are long and slender with 

 the elevated hallux weakest ; the claws are fairly long, curved, 

 and sharp. Somewhat shorter digits are found in Tribonyx and 

 Pareudiastes, Fulica has broad lobes of skin along the front toes, 

 while Porphyriops and G-allinula have narrow entire membranous 

 margins to them. The wings are generally short and rounded, 

 with ten or eleven primaries, and from eleven to sixteen second- 

 aries, all the feathers being obtuse ; but in many species these 

 members are imperfectly developed, and their coverts actually 

 hide the quills in such cases as Ocydromus and Notornis. This 

 retrograde tendency is clearly evidenced in the " Island Hen " of 

 Tristan da Cunha (Gallinula or PorpTiyriornis nesiotis) and the 

 " Mountain Cock " of Gough Island (G. comeri), which flutter 

 along without flying ; in the Moho of Hawaii (Pennula ecaudata), 

 Ocydromus and Notornis of New Zealand, and Habroptila wallacii 

 of Halmahera ; not to mention Eulabeornis, Porzanula, Nesolimnas, 

 Cabalus, Pareudiastes, and the extinct Aphanapteryx, Aptornis, 

 Diaphorapteryx, and Erythromachus. In several flightless forms, 

 as in the Dodo, the angle between the scapula and the coracoid is 

 obtuse. The tail has from ten to fourteen rectrices, the usual 

 number being twelve ; these are short and usually soft, frequently 

 with decomposed webs, and may be concealed by the coverts, as in 

 Megacrex, Amurolimnas, and Pennula. Its form varies from narrow 

 and pointed to comparatively broad and rounded. A large caruncle 

 rises behind the frontal shield in Gallicrex and Fulica cornuta, two 

 knobs being found there in F. cristata : the wing, moreover, is 

 often armed with a sharp spine. The nasal grooves are commonly 

 long and deep ; the pervious nostrils being in the hard sheath 

 of the bill in Gallinules, and partially covered by a bony or horny 

 growth in Rallicula, Pareudiastes, and Thyrorliina. The furcula 

 is U-shaped, the tongue lanceolate, the aftershaft very small. 

 Down is plentiful in both adults and young, that of the nestlings 

 being commonly black, while the chicks of our Moor-Hen and 

 Coot have the head adorned with red and blue. Eails, not being 

 born blind, run from the shell, and swim at once. 



