1918. } H. C. Rosinson & C. B. Ktoss: Birds. ny 
*“Adult, iris carmine, bill and frontal shield red, base 
of mandible maroon, tarsi and toes reddish pink, joints 
powdery black; Immature, iris greyish brown, bill blackish, 
blotched with red, feet and toes reddish pink, powdery black 
on joints.”’ 
Along with Anas superciliosa and Gallinula orientalis, this 
Purple Coot was exceedingly common among the reeds and 
rank vegetation at the northern end of Korinchi Lake, but did 
not occur at any other locality -in the valley itself though 
according to native informants it was common at various 
other small crater lakes in the district. Though recorded by 
Vorderman from Sumatra we have not come across any 
records of specific localities in the island and it does not 
appear to have been met with by any recent collectors. From 
the Toba Lake in the Battak Lands in Central -North 
Sumatra another species, P. bemmelenit, has been described, 
which is a race of the Indian P. poliocephalus, having the 
mantle purplish blue and the wings greenish. The present 
form has the mantle almost black, slightly washed with oily 
green and the primaries, secondaries and wing coverts black, 
except the outer series which are blue blackish, the two former 
washed with indigo on their outer webs. The edges of the 
frontal shield are raised in adult birds, a character not present 
in P. poltocephalus and inferentially also not in P. bemmelent. 
Our series has been compared with an adult from W. Java 
with which they exactly agree. 
Of the numerous adult birds collected by us, one has the 
chin and sides of the head hoary grey, not purplish black as 
in the other specimens. This character is relied on by Elliot 
to separate his P. edwardsi, of Cochin China and Siam, with 
which form Hume (Stray Feathers IX, p. 120 (1879) has also 
associated Malayan birds, but in view of Sharpe’s statements 
(loc. cit.) that dark-headed birds are found in the Malay 
Peninsula the character in evidently of little Value and in all 
probability P. edwardsi must fall. 
We have before us four specimens from the vicinity of 
Taiping, Perak, and one from Chainat, N. of Bangkok. These 
are all more or less grey-headed, one being practically 
identical with the grey headed specimen from Korinchi men- 
tioned above. 
Monsieur Morange, Director of the Botanical Gardens, 
Saigon, who has kept local birds in captivity, states that while 
females show no change of colour, males vary considerably 
throughout the year, the inference being that large series 
obtained in every month are required before the mainland and 
insular races of P. caluus can be definitely separated. In the 
absence of typical birds from Cochin China we are unable to 
arrive at a definite decision. 
1 Buttikofer, Notes Leyden Mus. XI. p. 192 (1889). 
Part Il: Vertebrata. 
