PORPHYRIO STANLEY! 



(The White Porphyrio.) 



Wing 8 inches 7 lines ; tarsus 3 inches 4 hnes ; naked part of tibia 1 inch 

 3 hnes ; middle toe, without the claw, 3 inches, outer toe 2 inches 4^ lines, 

 inner toe 2 inches 2 lines, hind toe 1 inch ; bill from gape 1 inch 2^ lines, 

 under mandible 1 inch 4 lines ; upper mandible, from point to end of plate 

 2 inches 4^ lines, to the beginning of the plate 1 inch 6 lines. No total length 

 can be given ; the tail is in bad condition, and the skin so old and thin that 

 it will not bear much handling. 



This unique, perhaps extinct, and most interesting bird is now in the 

 Liverpool Museum ; and I have to express my obligations to Mr. T. J. Moore 

 and the Committee for permission to draw it for this work. I have also 

 to thank Mr. Keulemans for the trouble he had in going to Liverpool 

 expressly for that purpose and for taking the measurements. To Professor 

 Newton's kindness I owe the use of his Catalogue of William Bullock's sale. 

 The specimen now has this label on it : — " White Gallinule, Lath. Syn. (2 edit, 

 pp. 428-40); GalUmla alba, Ind. Orn. 2.768. Bullock's Museum, 1645. 

 27 May, 1819." Another small label, tied round the leg, has " D " and the 

 reverse "3213." The "D," of course, means Derby, and the figures on 

 the reverse the number of the specimen in the Derby Museum, as the 

 " 1645" was its designation in the Bullock one. In Bullock's priced sale- 

 catalogue, on the seventeenth day, p. 103, Thursday, May 27, 1819, I 

 observe :— " Lot 60. White Galhnule (^F. alba'). New Zealand, rare; brought 



G 2 



