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about the rivers and marshes of Southern Persia, where Major St. John met with it. As in 

 Africa, specimens from Asia, and especially those from the Malay archipelago, vary from the 

 common European form : and it is not easy to say how far east this latter ranges ; but it 

 appears to occur in India. Mr. A. O. Hume writes (Stray Feathers, i. p. 250), " the Waterhen 

 abounds in every swamp and broad in Sindh. I shot some almost daily, expecting to get Blyth's 

 Gallinula burnesi, especially at the Muncher lake, whence the type specimen was sent. I have 

 killed and examined many examples ; but all I met with were referable to the European species. 

 I begin to have strong doubts as to whether Gallinula burnesi is not merely the immature 

 chloropus." Subject to some variation, the Moorhen is found as far east as China and Japan, 

 and south to the Philippines, Celebes, Java, Borneo, and Sumatra. 



In America, should the form occurring there be, as I believe, not specifically distinct from 

 our bird, it is to be met with from British North America down to Southern Brazil. 



It is by no means easy to say whether the various forms of the Moorhen found in Asia, 

 Africa, and America should be united with our European bird or kept specifically separate. 

 In plumage they do not differ, except to a very slight degree in intensity of colour ; the 

 only appreciable difference is in measurements, more especially in the size and extent of the 

 frontal plate. I have examined as many specimens as I could collect together from the British 

 Museum and from the cabinets of Messrs. Salvin and Godman, Tristram, C. A. Wright, Howard 

 Saunders, &c. ; and the result shows that they vary as follows : — European examples do not 

 differ greatly inter se, the measurements being — wing 6*5 to 7T inches, tarsus 1*78 to 2T ; and 

 the frontal plate does not extend as far as the eye, not reaching to within 0T to 022 from a line 

 drawn perpendicularly from the front of the eye. In Africa the European form appears to be 

 the one found in the extreme north ; but one from Lake Ashangi, in the British Museum, 

 measures — wing 6*82, tarsus T8 ; and the frontal shield is rather larger than in any European 

 example, reaching up to the anterior angle of the eye, and being broader and more swollen. 

 Examples from West and South Africa, Gallinula meridionalis (Stagnicola meridionalis, C. L. 

 Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 707, 1831), measure — wing 6 - 05 to to 6 - 3, tarsus 1*75 to 1*82 ; and the 

 frontal plate extends - 15 to - 28 beyond the anterior angle of the eye. Professor Newton has 

 separated the Mauritius bird under the name of Gallinula pyrrhorrhoa (P. Z. S. 1861, p. 18), 

 and states that it differs in having the frontal plate large, the under tail-coverts buff, and the 

 legs yellow ; and he further adds that its cry differs altogether from that of our bird. Besides 

 Mauritius, this form inhabits the Mascarene Islands, Bourbon, and Madagascar. 



Judging from the series I have examined from India, examples from that country differ very 

 slightly from typical European birds, in having a shorter wing and a larger frontal plate. The 

 measurements of those I have examined are: — wing 5 - 62 to 6 - 2 inches, in one specimen from 

 Behar 6*6 ; tarsus 1*7 to T9 ; and the frontal plate, which in some reaches quite to the anterior 

 angle of the eye, in others does not reach to within 0T5 to - inch of it; thus in every case 

 this plate is larger than in European examples. A specimen from Yunnan which measures, 

 wing 6'2 inches, tarsus 1*8, has, however, the frontal plate much bigger, extending fully 0T5 

 beyond the anterior angle of the eye. It would seem as if the European form occurred in India, 

 and there met the eastern form, which has a larger frontal plate ; and it seems not improbable 

 that Blyth's Gallinula parvifrons (J. As. Soc. Beng. xii. p. 180, 1843) is our European Moorhen, 



