WATER-HENS. 



449 



that " the localities it affects are marsh-lands and the sides of rivers. It was daily 

 seen by me on the Government demesne at New Norfolk, Tasmania, where it 

 frequently left its sedgy retreat, and walked about the paths and other parts of 

 the garden, with its tail erect like the common hen. Even here, however, the 

 greatest circumspection and quietude were necessary to obtain a sight of it ; for 

 the slightest noise or movement excited its suspicions, and in an instant it vanished 

 in the most extraordinary manner into some thicket, from which it did not again 

 emerge until all apparent cause for alarm was past. Its habits and general manners 

 are very similar to those of the moor-hen, but it does not dive or swim so much as 

 that bird. It is very easily captured with a common horsehair noose. The nest, 

 which is very similar to that of the moor-hen, is formed of a bundle of rushes 

 placed on the border of the stream; eggs seven in number." In the following 

 genera the toes are long, the third toe and claw exceeding the metatarsus in length. 

 Passing over the common water-hen (Gallinula) and its allies, in which the 

 toes, although not lobed like 

 those of the coots, have a narrow 

 lateral membrane, and the nos- 

 trils are oval and situated in a 

 distinct nasal depression, we find 

 in South -Eastern Asia and the 

 adjacent islands a large species 

 known as the water-cock (Galli- 

 crex cinerea), distinguished by 

 having no lateral membrane on 

 the toes. The male has the 

 plumage black, the upper-parts 

 especially, the wing-coverts being 

 edged with grey, and the scapu- 

 1 irs and lower back with brown, 

 while the under tail-coverts are 

 buff barred with black. The 



female is browner and has the wing -co verts grey, while the under -parts are 

 buff with dusky bars, except the throat and middle of the belly, which are 

 white. 



The most striking birds of this group, as regards brilliance of 

 colouring, are the purple gallinules (Porphyrio), with their handsome 

 blue and purple plumage, variously shaded with dark green, olive-brown, and black. 

 Closely allied to these is Mantell's gallinule (Notornis mantelli), a native of New 

 Zealand, now nearly, if not quite, extinct, and the white form (N. alba), which 

 formerly inhabited Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands. Finally, we must mention 

 the coots (Fidica), at once recognised by their lobed toes. In habits they resemble 

 both ducks and gallinules, being able not only to swim and dive well, but to thread 

 their way through grass and reeds with ease and swiftness. In rising they flap 

 along the surface of the water, and fly like rails with their legs dangling ; and 

 their notes resemble those of the gallinules, but are more harsh and grating. The 

 distribution of the genus is cosmopolitan. 



VOL. IV. 29 



COMMON COOT. 



Gallinules 

 and Coots. 



