BALLID^ GALLINULA 265 



bill yellow; feet and toes grass green, sometimes flesh-coloured, 

 tinged with light green. 



Length 9-25 ; wing 5-4 ; tail 2'25 ; culmen and frontal 

 shield 1-2 ; tarsus 1-55. 



The females are lighter in colour and have a nearly white chin ; 

 the frontal shield also is not so bright and is tinged with orange at 

 the base. 



The young bird is much lighter than the adult, the crown and 

 back is olive-brown ; some of the inner secondaries are broadly 

 margined with ochraceous-brown ; lores and eyebrows, cheeks and 

 chin, throat and breast ashy-white ; a wash of brown on the fore- 

 heck, flanks and under tail-coverts as in the adult. Iris yellow ; 

 bill greenish-yellow, the frontal shield and culmen black bordered 

 with yellow. 



Distribution. — The Lesser Moorhen is found throughout the 

 greater part of Africa from Senegal and British Bast Africa south- 

 wards. Within our limits it appears to be chiefly met with 

 north of the Orange River, as it has only once been noticed in 

 Cape Colony and appears to be by no means abundant in Natal, 

 though the type obtained by Wahlberg is stated to have come from 

 " Lower Caffraria." 



The following are recorded localities ; Cape Colony — Swellendam 

 (Layard in S. A. Mus.), Spaldings in Barkly West division, February 

 (Ayres) ; Natal — Umschali lakes (Ayres) ; Transvaal — Mooi Eiver 

 at Potchefstroom (Ayres), near Johannesburg, scarce (Haagner) ; 

 Bechuanaland — Selenia Pan, December (Ayres), Tebra country near 

 Lake Ngami, February to April (Eriksson in S. A. Mus.) ; Ehodesia 

 — Sakasusi River, February, and Tibakai's Pan, December, in 

 Western Matabeleland (Gates) ; German South - west Africa — 

 Ondonga, February to March (Andersson), Ondura in Ovampoland, 

 March (Eriksson in S. A. Mus.). 



Habits. — The Lesser Moorhen is very abundant in the northern 

 part of Damaraland, and was found breeding there in great numbers 

 by Andersson in February and March ; Eriksson also met with 

 it breeding in the Tebra country in February and in Ovampoland 

 in March. The nest, according to the latter observer, is constructed 

 of a mass of water grass floating amongst the thickest rushes ; some 

 of the standing stalks are bent downwards, forming the foundation ; 

 the hollow in which the eggs are laid is about three inches deep ; 

 while Andersson states that after the nest has been completed the 

 bird binds the tops of the surrounding grasses and ties them 



