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Order GEALL^.] 



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[Fam. RALLID^ 



POEPHYEIO MELANOTUS^ 



(SWAMP-HEN.) 



Por^hyrio melanotiis^ Temm. Man. d'Orn. ii. p. 701 (1820). 

 BlacJc-haclced Gallinule^ Lath. Gen. Hist. ix. p. 427 (1824). 



Native names. — Pukeko and Pakura. 



Ad. suprk nigricans^ scapnlaribus et rectricibus vix brunneo externe lavatis : collo postico et lateralis tcctricibus 



alarum^ genis et corpore subtus sordide ca^ruleis : remigibus nigris^ primariis extiis obscure cseruleo 

 lavatis : mento cum abdomine imo et cruribus nigris : subcaudalibus albis : rostro et pedibus pallide 

 coccineis : iride Isete coccinea. 



Adult male. Head and nape sooty black; back and upper surface of wings and tail shining blacky glossed in 

 some specimens with green ; neck^ breast^ sides of the body^ outer edges and lining of wings bright indigo- 

 blue; abdomen and feathered portion of tibia sooty blacky tinged more or less with indigo-blue; under 

 tail-coverts pure white. Irides cherry -red; frontal plate and bill bright cherry-red^ paler on the edges, 

 yellowish towards the tips of both mandibles ; legs and feet pale lake-red, brownish at the joints. Total 

 length 21 inches; extent of wings 36*5; wing, from flexure, 11*5; tail 4*5; frontal plate, across the 

 top, 1 ; from posterior edge of frontal plate to the tip of upper mandible 2' 75 ; bill, along the edge of 

 lower mandible, 1*75 ; bare portion of tibia 1'5 ; tarsus 4 ; middle toe and claw 4'75 ; hind toe and 

 claw 2. 



Female. Somewhat smaller in all its proportions, 'with the colours of the plumage duller and the bill and 

 legs of a paler red. 



Young. The following descriptive notes on a series of specimens will exhibit at a glance the changes that 



take place in the young in their progress towards maturity : — 

 No. 1 (newly hatched). Covered with dense black down^ the head, neck, wings, and back thickly 



sprinkled with white points; bill greyish-white, black at the tip; legs purplish grey. 

 No. 2 (a few days older). Presents fewer of the white points, which are in reality terminal sheaths, and 



are rapidly cast off. 



No. 3 (about ten days old). Covered with sooty down; on the back and sides of the head, also on the 

 wing, numerous stiff hair -like filaments with white apices ; bill dusky black, greyish in the centre and 

 white near the tip ; frontal plate soft and of a reddish flesh-colour ; crown of the head without any down, 

 but covered with black thick-set bristles, which are continued over the eyes to the beak, and are long 

 and recumbent along the frontal plate, evidently for the protection of its tender edges ; cubitus perfectly 

 bare and flesh-coloured; legs dusky cinereous. 



* The description of PorpJiyrio cyanocepTialus, Yieill. IS". Diet. d'Hist. ^N'at. xxviii. p. 28 (1819), appears to agree with 

 the above, but no locahty is assigned ; and in the absence of more positive proof that it relates to the same bird, I am 

 unwiUing to sink so weU-estabUshed a name as P. melanotus. 



