22 THE GENUS PORPHYRIO AND ITS SPECIES. 



specimens from Madagascar; back and rump, grass green; 

 wings, bright blue ; inner webs of primaries and secondaries, 

 black ; tail, black ; the outer webs washed with dark green ; 

 under tail-coverts pure white ; bill, frontal plate, logs and 

 feet, bright red ; iris, brown. Total length, 16-75 inch; wing, 

 9-75 ; tail, 4 ; bill along gape, 1-5 ; width of head-shield at its 

 posterior margin, - 81 ; tarsus, 3"37 ; middle toe, 3'5 ; claw, 1 

 inch. 



Young. — Back olive green, and the under parts blotched 

 and spotted with white. 



7.— Porphyrio poliocephalus. 



Gray-headed Gallinule, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., Vol. II., p. 



375 (1785). 

 Gallinula poliocephala, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. 58. 

 Porphyrio pol'iQcephalus, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. Hist. Nat. (1819 ), 

 Tom. XXVIII, p. 39.— Gray Gen. Birds, Vol. III., p. 598.— 

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

 Ibis, (1861), p. 246.— Jerd., Birds Ind., Vol. III., p. 713 

 (1864).— Blyth, Ibis, (1867), p. 171.— Beav, Ibis. (1868), 

 p. 395.— Holdsw., Proc. Zool. Soc. (1872), p. 475.— Llovd., 

 Ibis, (1873), p. 418.— Legge, Ibis, (1874) p. 31.— Ball, Str. 

 Feath., (1874), Vol. II., p. 432.— Blyth, Birds, Burma, 

 (1875), p. 161.—' Butler, Str. Feath., Vol. IV. (1876), p. 20. 

 —Hume, Str. Feath., VI, p. 464, (1878.) 

 Porphyrio smaragnotus, Sykes. (nee Tern.) P. Z. S., 1832, 



165. 

 Porplwrio neglectus, Schleg. Mus. Pays B., p. 53, Ralli, (1865). 

 —Hume, Str. Feath., Vol. I. (1873), p. 249, Vol. II., 

 (1874), p. 483.— Oates, Str. Feath., Vol. III. (1875), 

 p. 185. 

 J2 ao> — Throughout all India and Ceylon (Jerd.) ; Eastern side 

 of the Bay of Bengal to the Tenasserim Provinces, (Blyth.), 

 Common in Sindh and Kattiawar, less so in Cutch, rare in 

 Jodhpoor, (Hume) ; Mount Aboo and Northern Guzerat, 

 (Butler) ; Deccan, (Syke) ; Oudh and Kumaon ylrby) ; 

 Upper Pegu, (Oates) ; Southern Ceylon, (Legge). 

 This is the species described by Latham, first as the " Gray- 

 headed Gallinule'"' (1. a), and afterwards as Gallinula polioce- 

 phala, (1. c). He does not at all describe the Philippine bird named 

 P. PULVEB.ULENTUS by Temminck, which in the colour of its 

 plumage has very little resemblance to the present species. 

 Schlegel (1. c.) has called the birds of " Inde continentale depuis 

 le Nipaul jusqu'au Cap Comorin,'-' P. neglectus, and has 

 given Latham's name to the Philippine bird ; but Latham 

 says in his Synopsis (1. c.) that the back of poliocephala, (as he 



