380 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
the Somersetshire and other British-taken Purple Gallinules, Porphyrio 
veterum, against the imputation of being escaped birds and not bona fide 
wild visitants to our islands. From my experience of the habits of this 
species as observed in Spain and Sicily, it seems to me that he is arguing 
upon erroneous premises, especially as regards its assumed “ migratory” 
instincts. When he says, “ Bearing in mind that the birds are migratory, 
and that the mouth of the Rhone or the coast of Portugal is at no great 
distance from this country when fairly on the wing,” &c., he is doubtless 
mindful of the exact words of the late M. Favier, and of Colonel Irby, in the 
‘ Ornithology of the Straits of Gibraltar,’ but I imagine that both of them use 
the expression in a far more limited sense than that in which Mr. Mathew 
has taken it. From the neighbourhood of Gibraltar, where it occurs in 
January and February, “doubtless on migration” to several marshes where 
it is resident throughout the year, is but a few miles, and there is a 
succession of these as far as the great marshes of the Guadalquiver, which 
are only seventy miles in a straight line from Gibraltar: whilst from the 
South of Portugal to Bath or Wells it is thirteen degrees of latitude, as 
the crow flies, or nearly eight hundred geographical miles!’ Mr. Mathew 
may consider this ‘no great distance for a bird when fairly on the wing,” 
but there are birds, and birds, and the Purple Waterhen is one of 
those most difficult to flush, and settles down as soon as possible after 
a short flight, seldom, if ever, to be flushed again. If a dog has almost 
got hold of one, it must perforce rise or be “chopped”; but when, 
after a short flight, it drops down into the sedge, it runs and clambers 
amongst the reeds, and is seen no more. It would take twenty couple of 
otter-hounds to thoroughly rout up a marsh of moderate dimensions so as 
to give any idea of the Porphyrios it might contain; and after working a 
couple of those marshes the staunchest pack would be pretty well “ baked.” 
Again, it will be observed that even its occurrence “on migration” near 
Gibraltar is in the months of January and February, the very time at 
which the officers of the garrison and other sportsmen are in the habit 
of going out shooting, and consequently many a bird might be seen at 
that time which at others might pass unnoticed; besides which in winter the 
cover is not so dense. If the bird were really “ migratory,” in the usual 
acceptation of the word, it is strange that it should have become scarce or 
almost extinct in the marshes of the Albufera of Valencia, in those near 
Murcia, in those of the Prat and the Almenasa, of the Island of Majorca, 
and other localities. That it is “more abundant in winter,” as Von 
Homeyer says, merely shows that there are naturally more sportsmen about 
at that season, and that, the sedge being scantier, it is then more easily 
obtained. My impression, in fact, is that there are few birds which 
migrate less and are more locally restricted than this species. Nor can I 
agree to Mr. Mathew’s assumption that any one of the captured specimens 
