264 BALLID^ QAIiLINULA 



the coast (Woodward); Transvaal— Mooi Eiver at Potchefstroom, 

 June to July (Ayres), Lydenburg and Pretoria (Barratt), near 

 Johannesburg, scarce (Haagner) ; Bechuanaland — Tebra country 

 near Lake Ngami, April (Eriksson) ; Ehodesia — Chirba Eiver in 

 Mashonaland (Marshall) ; German South-west Africa — throughout 

 (Andersson), Okahandya (Fleck). 



Habits. — Andersson gives an excellent account of the habits 

 of the Moorhen in South Africa ; it does not differ much in this 

 respect from that of Europe, except that it appears to lay only from 

 two to four eggs instead of from seven to nine.. The Moorhen is 

 found only in or about water ; it swims and dives with great ease 

 and dexterity ; as it moves about the surface of the water it nods 

 its head from side to side looking for insects and vegetable sub- 

 stances ; it may sometimes be found away from water in the early 

 morning or in the evening searching the grass for worms, slugs 

 and insect larvae which, together with the grasses and seeds, form 

 its food. It occasionally takes to flight for a short distance, but 

 usually prefers to escape into safety by running. 



Eriksson found a nest on April 3rd in the Tebra country near 

 Lake Ngami ; it was constructed of water grasses and reeds, and 

 was floating amongst the thickest rushes. The eggs were three in 

 number of a buffy-brown colour freely speckled with small brown 

 spots and a few larger ones of a darker shade of the same colour. 



682. Gallinula angulata. Lesser Moorhen. 



Gallinula angulata, Sundev. Oefvers. K. Vet. Akad. Forh. Stochh. 1850, 

 p. 110 ; Layard, B. S. Afr. p. 342 (1867) ; Gurney, Ibis, 1868, p. 52 

 [Mooi River] ; id. in Andersson's B. Damaral. p. 321 (1872) ; Oates, 

 Matabeleland, p. 824 (1881) ; Shelley, Jbis, 1882, p. 366 [Selenia 

 Pan] ; Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 624 (1884) ; id. Cat. B. M. 

 xxiii, p. 181, (1894) ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 175 (1896) ; Beichenow, 

 Vog. Afr. i, p. 295 (1900) ; Haagner, Ibis, 1902, p. 580. 



Gallinula pumila, P. L. Sclaier, Ibis, 1859, p. 249, pi. 7 [Natal] ■" 

 Gurney, Ibis, 1864, p. 361 ; P. L. Solater, Ibis, 1867, p. 254. 



Description. Adult Male. — Crown of the head, neck all round 

 and lower surface slaty, almost black on the crown, becoming slaty- 

 grey on the breast ; centre of the back strongly washed with olive- 

 brown ; band of the wing, bastard wing and first primary edged 

 with white ; tail black ; flanks broadly streaked with white ; median 

 under tail-coverts black, lateral ones white. 



Iris crimson ; frontal shield and culmen bright red ; rest of the 



