434 G. E. Yerrill — Some Birds and Eggs collected at 



Mr. Comer also writes that " small ducks " were found at South 

 Georgia, but says they were "not plentiful." No description is 

 given, so I am unable to identify the species. 



Order, GRALL-ffi. 



Family, Rallid^. 



2. Porphyriornis conieri Allen. " Mountain Cock," 

 Porphyriornis comeri Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist, vol. iv. No. 1, Art. vi, p. 

 57, 1892. 



Four skins from Gough Island. 



This bird proved to be new to science and Mr. Allen has described 

 it as above, naming it in honor of Mr. Comer and making ,it the 

 type of a new genus {Porphyriornis)^ which includes Gallinula 

 nesiotis Scl.* from Tristan da Cunha. 



Besides P. nesiotis from Tristan da Cunha, another, and probably 

 undescribed, species of flightless gallinule is found on Inaccessible 

 Island, one of the Tristan Group. Concerning this bird Sir C. 

 Wyville Thomson says,f "It is only about a fourth the size [of P. 

 nesiotis] and it seems to be markedly different in appearance. The 

 Stoltenhoffs described it as being 'exactly like a black chicken two 

 days old, the legs and beak black, the beak long and slender, the 

 head small, the wings short and soft and useless for flight.'" 



A little further on (p. 185), the same author speaks of the bird 

 from Gough Island as follows, "An 'island hen' is also found on 

 Gough Island ; but the whalers think it is the same as the Tristan 

 species." J; 



Mr. Comer spoke of the Tristan bird but told me, before Mr. 

 Allen had seen it, that the one from Gough Island was different. 



Concerning the habits of these birds Mr. Comer writes as follows : 

 "Mountain Cocks are a little larger than quail. They are generally 

 black (occasionally one is nearly brown), usually with one or two- 

 white feathers in their wings. They cannot fly and only use their 

 wings to help them in running. . . . They are quite plentiful and 

 can be caught by hand. Could not get on a table three feet high. 

 The bushes grow on the island up to about 2000 feet, and these birds 

 are found as far up as the bushes grow. I do not know how many 



* Proc. Zool. Soc, 1861, p. 261, pi. xxx. See also. The Atlantic, by Sir C 

 "Wyville Thomson, vol. ii. p. 165, for account of its habits. 

 \ The Atlantic, vol. ii, pp. 184 and 185. 

 X See also " Notes of a Naturalist," Moseley, p. 122. 



