MOOR-HEN. 235 



Gallinula chloropus^ Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 547 (1852) ; 

 Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 313, pi. 503 (1879); B. O. U. 

 List Brit. B. p. 151 (1883); Saunders, ed. Yarrell's Brit. 

 B. iii. p. 164 (1883); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. ii. p. 557 

 (1884); Saunders, Man. Brit. B. p. 503 (1889); Lilford, 

 Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xix. (1891); Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. 

 Mus. xxiii. p. 171 (1894). 



(Plate CXIX.) 



Adult Male. General colour above dark olive-brown, with 

 reflections of ruddy brown ; scapulars like the back ; wing- 

 coverts slightly more ashy and washed with olive-brown, 

 especially towards the ends ; bastard-wing, primary-coverts, 

 and quills blackish-brown, externally washed with ashy-brown, 

 the outer bastard wing-feathers and first primary externally 

 edged with white ; the innermost secondaries more ruddy 

 brown and washed with olive like the back; tail-feathers 

 blackish, with a slight wash of olive-brown ; crown of head and 

 sides of face blackish, fading off into dark slaty-grey on the 

 sides of the neck and hind-neck ; throat also blackish, fading 

 off into dark slaty-grey, the same as the rest of the under 

 surface ; the lower flanks washed with brown, the sides of the 

 body broadly streaked with white, which occupies the greater 

 part of the outer feathers ; abdomen more or less varied with 

 white edges to the feathers ; under tail-coverts white, with the 

 feathers of the vent and the long median tail-coverts black ; 

 under wing-coverts and axillaries ashy-grey, tipped with white, 

 the bend of the wing edged with white ; frontal shield and two- 

 thirds of the bill deep lake-red, the tip of the latter greenish- 

 yellow for about one-third ; legs olive-green, the broad scaling 

 on the fore part of the tarsus, and the scales on the upper part 

 of the toes, lemon-yellow ; joint of heel dusky olive-green, with 

 a shade of lemon-yellow immediately below the garter, which is 

 dark lake-red; iris reddish. Total length, 12*5 inches; 

 culmen, with frontal shield, 1*55; wing, 7-3; tail, 2-9; tarsus, 

 1-85 ; middle toe and claw, 2-95, 



Adult Female. Similar to the male in colour, but having the 

 white streaks on the flanks not quite so broad. Total length, 

 1 1 '5 inches; wing, 6*4. 



