20 THE GENUS PORPHYRIO AND ITS SPECIES. 



Mr. Swinhoe's description of this bird answers perfectly well 

 for the P. calvtjs, with the exception that the rump is stated to 

 be white. This is probably an oversight, and for rump, it 

 should read, tinder tail-coverts. But if this is not the case, 

 then it is certainly a distinct species, for there is no other 

 Porphyrio known with a white rump.* I am inclined to 

 believe that Mr. Swinhoe inadvertently committed an error, 

 and as the individual described was living at the time in cap- 

 tivity, it was probably P. calvus brought from one of the islands 

 in the Eastern Archipelago. The description of this bird is as 

 follows : — ■ 



11 Head, dusky grey ; sides of neck, flanks and belly, fine blue 

 purple; throat, down to breast, turquoise blue, a patch of 

 which also occurs across the shoulder-joint; rump, white; bill, 

 casque and legs, brick red ; eyes crimson/' 



6.— Porphyrio chloronotus. 



Falica porphyrio, Linn. Syst. Nat. (1766), Vol. I., p. 258, sp. 



5.— Gmel. Syst. Nat. (1788), Vol. II., p. 699. 

 Purple gallinule, Latham. Gen. Syn. Birds, (1785), Vol. III., Pt. 



1., p. 254. 

 La Taleve de Madagascar, Buff. Planch. Enlum. No. 810. 

 Gallinula porphyrio, Lath. Ind. Ornith. (1790), Vol. II,, p. 



768, sp. 6. 

 ? Gallinula madagascariensis, Lath. Ind. Ornith. Supp. (1801), 



p. 6S, juv. 

 Porphyrio chlorynothos , Vieill. Nouv. Diet d'Hist. Nat. (1819), 



Tom. XXVIII, p. 24, pi. M. 20, fig. 8. 

 Porphyrio smaragnotus, Temm. Man. Ornith, (1820), Vol. II., 



p. 700.— Ayres, Ibis. (1859), p. 249, (1874), p. 105.— 



Finsch. and Hartl. Vog. Ost. Afr., p. 783. — Brehm. Jour. 



fur. Ornith. (1871), p. 34.— Dress. B. Eur. Pt. 56, 



(1876). 

 Porphyrio erythropus, Steph. in Shaw's Gen. Zool., Vol. XII, 



p. 255 (1824). 

 Porphyrio madagascariensis. Gray. Gen. Birds, Vol. III., p. 



598.— Blyth, Cat. Birds Mus. Asiat. Soc. (1849), p. 283.— 



Hartl, Jour. fur. Ornith. (1860), p. 172 ; (1861), p. 272.— 



E. Newt. Ibis. (1861), p. 116.— Roch and Newt., Ibis. 



(1863), p. 173.— A. Newt. Proc. Zool. Soc. (1865), p. 



836.— Schleg., Mus. Pays. Bas., p. 54. Ralli, (1865).— 



Boccage, Jour. fur. Ornith., (1875), p. 299. 



* Partial Albinos in this group seem not uncommon ; I have seen P. pnMocephahts 

 with half the back white, and not long since a nearly perfectly white Coot (F, 

 atra) was sent me from Kattiawar. — A. O. H, 



