GALLINULA DIMIDIATA.— Temm. 



AvEs. — Plate XX. (Adult Male and Young Female.) 



Mas. — G. capite colloque castaneis; dorso, alis, (remigibus priniariis secundariisque exceptis,) abdoniine, 

 caudaque nigro-brumieis, striis maculisque albis variegatis ; remigibus brunneo-rubris. Rostro pedi- 

 busque pallida rubro-brunneis. 



LoNGiTUDO 6 1 unc. 



Gallintila DIMIDIATA, Temm., Less. Mamiel d'Ornith. torn. 1, page 537, 1831. 

 Crex ruficollis. Gray, Zoological Miscellany, page 13, 1831. 



Colour. — Head, neck, and breast bright chestnut — the throat and breast 

 lightest ; back, shoulders, wing coverts, quill coverts, tertiary quill feathers, 

 belly, upper and under tail coverts, and tail blackish brown, freely va- 

 riegated with delicate longitudinal white streaks, and small white dots, the 

 latter almost restricted to the quill coverts, the upper and under tail coverts, 

 the vent, and the tail. Wherever the variegations consist of longitudinal 

 white streaks, there are two on each feather, one on the outer, the other 

 on the inner vane; behind the stripes, however, there are generally four white 

 dots, (vide fig. a.) When again the variegations consist of dots, there are from 

 two to three of those near the edge of each vane, at some distance from each 

 other, and those of the one vane are situated opposite to the corresponding- 

 ones of the other, (vide fig. b.) Primary and secondary quill feathers brownish 

 red ; bill and legs reddish brown ; the lower mandible faintly edged above 

 and below with yellowish brown. 



Form. — Bill short and deep at the base, hence, when viewed laterally it has 

 distinctly a triangular shape ; head rounded ; neck rather short and full ; body 

 rather robust ; tail full and decomposed; thighs feathered almost to the knee- 

 joints ; tarsi rather strong, and the toes long for the size of the bird. Wings 

 when folded scarcely reach beyond the base of the tail, the fourth and fifth 

 quill feathers equal and longest, the second, third and sixth equal and 

 slightly shorter, the first rather shorter than the second ; the whole of the 

 feathers loose and rather of a wiry appearance ; tarsi in front coated with 

 one row of plates, behind with two rows, of which the commissure is 

 behind, bare space above knee-joints also coated with plates; outer and 

 middle toe with a rudimentary web at their base ; claws slender, slightly 

 curved and pointed. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Inches. Lines. 



Length from the tip of the bill to the 



point of tlie tail 6 6 



of the bill from angle of mouth 7^ 



of the wings when folded 3 



ofthetail 2 



Length of the tarsus 



the middle toe . 

 the outer toe . . 

 the inner toe... 

 the hinder toe 



