Order GKALL^E.] [F Alf , EALLID^E. 



POEPHYKIO MELANOTUS*. 



(SWAMP-HEN.) 



Porphyrio melanotus, Temm. Man. d'Om. ii. p. 701 (1820). 

 Black-backed Gallinule, Lath. Gen. Hist. ix. p. 427 (1824). 



Native names. — Pukeko and Pakura. 



Ad. supra nigricans, scapularibus et rectricibus vix brunneo externe lavatis : collo postico et laterali, tectricibus 

 alarum, genis et corpore subtiis sordide cseruleis : remigibus nigris, primariis extiis obscure ceeruleo 

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

 coccineis : iride lsete coccinea. 



Adult male. Head and nape sooty black ; back and upper surface of wings and tail shining black, 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 black, 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, 1P5; 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, l - 75 ; bare portion of tibia l - 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 Porphyrio cyanocepJutlus, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxviii. p. 28 (1S19), appears to agree with 

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

 unwilling to sink so well-established a name as P. melanotus. 



