14 THE GENUS PORPHYRIO AND ITS SPECIES. 



This species is distributed generally throughout Australia, 

 Tasmania, and New Zealand, besides some of the islands conti- 

 guous to the latter. It is apparently very abundant in the 

 localities it frequents. According to Gould specimens from 

 various parts of the Australian continent differ in size, and 

 Dr. Bullet*, in his Birds of New Zealand, mentions different varia- 

 tions of plumage occurring among examples seen by him from 

 the latter country, some of which were partially white. The 

 specimen in the Liverpool Museum, described by Mr. Rowley, 

 (i.e.), as P. stanleyi, is probably a nearly perfect albino of 

 this species. The present bird is rather shy, although when 

 domesticated it becomes very tame. It builds its nests in 

 swampy situations, depositing from two to seven eggs, measur- 

 ing 2"2 X 1*5 inches, usually of a "pale yellowish brown, spotted 

 and blotched with purplish and reddish brown/' presenting a 

 general individual diversity of colouring. 



Adult. — Occiput, cheeks, chin, back, wings and tail, black ; 

 rest of plumage indigo blue ; outer webs of primaries pale 

 blue ; frontal plate, bill, legs, and feet red ; the bill is palest 

 towards the point. Total length, 18 to 19 inches; wing, 105 ; 

 tail, 4'62 ; bill at gape, 1*5 to 1*62 ; width of head-shield at its 

 posterior margin, 62 to 1 inch; tarsus, 3-37 to 3"62; middle 

 toe, 3-37 ; claw, 6-87 inch. 



Immature individuals have the lower parts streaked with 

 brownish white. 



Young, almost entirely black, with a faint tinge of blue 

 upon the breast and flanks ; bill in the skins, brownish black, 

 with a yellowish bar crossing both maxilla and mandible in 

 front of the nostrils in one specimen, but in another the yellow 

 takes a lengthwise course beneath the culmen and above the 

 gonys. 



2.— Porphyrio veterum. 



The Purple Water Hen, Edw. Nat. Hist. Birds, Vol. II., p. 87, 

 pi. 87, (1747), 



Porphyrio veterum, Grrel. Reiss Russl., Vol. III., p. 79, (foot 

 note) pi. 12, (1774).— Gray, Gen. Birds, Vol. III., p. 598.— 

 Bolle. Jour, fur Ornith., (1855), p. 314. — Salvadori, Jour. 

 fur. Ornith., (1865), p. 282.— Brooke, Ibis (1873), p. 336, 

 sp. 154.— Von Heugl. Ornith. Nord-ost Afr., (1873), Band. 

 II, o. 1234.— Dress. Birds Eur., Part. 50, May 1876. 



Fulica ccerulea., Vandelli. Flor. et Faun. Lusit. (1780), p. 37. 



Gallimda porphyrio, var. B., Lath. Ind. Orn., Vol. II., p. 768, 

 (1790.) 



Fulica porphyrio, Pall. Zoog-Ross-Asiat, Vol. II., p. 156, 

 (1811.) 



