THE GENUS PORPHYRIO AND ITS SPECIES. 23 



afterwards called it)., is purple, and as this properly charac- 

 terises the Indian bird, and not at all the Philippine, which has 

 the back a reddish olive brown, it would seem that Schlegel 

 was in error in giving the present species a new name, and I 

 have therefore placed his P. neglectus among the synonyms 

 given above. 



The habits of this species, having been already recorded in 

 Stray Feathers, and as it is a bird doubtless well known to all 

 Indian ornithologists, it is not necessary for me to say any thin g 

 about them. 



Adult. — Occiput and nape, space around the eyes, and lores., 

 grey, tinged with purple ; back of neck, back and rump, pur- 

 plish-blue, varying somewhat in shade between dark blue and 

 purple according to the light ; cheeks, chin and throat, pur- 

 plish-grey, passing into a dark turquoise blue upon the lo wer 

 part of the neck and breast ; wings, pale greenish-blue ; inner 

 webs of primaries and secondaries, black ; lower part of 

 breast, flanks, abdomen, vent and thighs, dark purplish-blue ; 

 tail, black, edged with blue on the outer webs ; under tail- 

 coverts, pure white ; bill, red ; the culmen for three-fourths its 

 basal length, and a spot at base of each mandible, dark blood- 

 red ; head-shield, cherry -red ; irides, brick-red ; legs and 

 feet, pale brick-red to crimson. Total length, 18 inches ; wing, 

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

 posterior margin, 1*12; tarsus, 3*62 ; middle toe, 3*62; claw, 

 1 inch. 



8 — Porphyrio edwardsi. Plate. 



Porphyrio edwardsi, Elliot. Ann. and Mao-. Nat. Hist. 

 (1878), p. 98. _ 



Bab. — Cochin-China, Saigon, (Germain); Bankok. (Bocourt). 



Four specimens of this handsome bird, (upon which I have 

 conferred the name of edwardsi, in compliment to my friend 

 Prof. A. Milne-Edwards, so well known for his important con- 

 tributions to Natural History), are contained in the collection of 

 the Paris Museum, three adults and one young bird. Two of 

 the adults are precisely like the figure in the accompanying 

 plate (the type) ; the third is a little paler upon the sides of the 

 head, but all possess the uniform greenish-black back and 

 wings. The P. edwardsi differs from P. poliocephalus in 

 being darker on the back of the head, in having the blue of 

 the breast of a darker shade, and specially in having the upper 

 parts, including the wings, greenish-black, instead of the purple 

 back and rump, and greenish-blue wings of poliocephalus. 

 This colouring of the upper parts is so conspicuously different 

 in the two species that either can be recognised at a glance. 



