PURPLE WATEEHEN. 



GPvALLATORES. 



Family RALLID^. (Bonaparte.) 



Genus Porphyrio. ( Brisson.) 



Generic Characters. — Beak strong, hard, thick, conic, nearly as deep as long, 

 shorter than the head; upper mandible depressed and dilated, so as to oc- 

 cupy at its origin the entire forehead and part of the vertex. Nostrils lateral, 

 round, situated at the end of the basal third of the upper mandible, and 

 pierced from side to side through the substance of the beak. Legs long 

 and strong; toes very long in some species, the anterior entirely divided, 

 and all of them fringed by a slight narrow membrane. Wings medium size ; 

 the first primary shorter than the second, third, and fourth, which are each 

 longer than the other. 



PUEPLE WATEEHEN. 



Porphyrio hyacinthinus. 



Porphyrio hyacinthinus, Temminck, 1820. 



" veterum, Gmelin. 



" antiquorum, BoNAPARTE. 



Fulica porphyrio, Pallas, 1811-31. 



Talcve Porphyrion, Or the French. 



Europaisches Purpurhiihn, Of the Germans. 



Polio Sultano, Savi. 



Kazir, Of the Moors. 



Mane on azul Calamon, Of the Spaniards. 



Specific Characters. — The middle toe longer than the tarsus. Primaries 

 purple on their external web; under tail coverts white. Length seventeen 

 inches; carpus to tip ten inches and a half; tarsus four inches; middle toe 

 four inches and a half; claw of middle toe one inch ; hind toe one inch and 

 three quarters, and its much-curved claw one inch and one fifth; naked 

 space above the knee two inches; beak from gape one inch and four fifths; 

 upper mandible from the dilated osseous plate on the occiput two inches 

 and a half. 



