PURPLE WATEBIIEN. 49 



tail coverts white; under tail featliers brown. Beak and frontal plate 

 red; feet and legs pink; iris red. 



The young of the year, after the first moult, have, according to 

 Degland, the occiput and nape yellowish brown ; upper parts brown 

 ash, shaded here and there with indigo blue; cheeks and neck ash, 

 washed in front with turquoise blue; crop and abdomen ash, shaded 

 with brown on the flanks, with whitish on the under tail coverts, 

 thighs, and lower part of abdomen; wings dark indigo blue, with 

 the extremity of the coverts bordered with whitish; feet green russet. 

 Before the first moult there is no blue in the plumage. 



My figure is taken from a specimen kindly sent me by Mr. 

 Tristram, marked "Algiers, Dec, 1855." The e^^ is from my own 

 collection; it was taken in Algeria, and sent me by the late Herr 

 Seidensacher, of Cilli. 



It has also been figured by Brisson, Orn., vol. v, pi. 42, fig. 1; 

 Bufibn, pi. enl. 810, under the name of Taleve de Madagascar; 

 Roux, Ornith. Prov.; Bouteille, Orn. du Dauph., pi. 58; Gould, B. 

 of E., pi. 340. 



Porphyrio Alleni. — The Hydrorma Alleni of Salvadori has, according 

 to that naturalist, occurred once in Italy. It was a young individual 

 taken near Lucca, in the autumn of 1857, and sent in the flesh to 

 Savi, and is now preserved in the Museum of Pisa. Salvadori saw 

 the bird in the flesh. Hartlaub supposes it was an escaped bird, of 

 which Salvadori says there was no trace. It is a native of Africa, 

 but we have no other information of its having been taken in any 

 other part of Europe. I therefore omit it from this work. 



Porphyrio smaragnotus has also been captured, according to the 

 same authority, in Sardinia and Sicily, and is omitted because we 

 have no positive information, nor will Salvadori guarantee that it had 

 not escaj)ed from ornamental water. 



VOL. V. H 



