GALLINULE. 407 



Another green-footed Water-Hen, of Bellonius, Will. Engl. p. 314. 

 Aldrovandus's Italian Rail, Will. Engl. 319. 

 Brown Gallinule, Gen. Syn. v. 200. 



THIS is less than the Common Gallinule ; length one foot. Bill 

 one inch, olive-green; irides red; eyelids white; plumage above 

 olive-brown ; throat and fore part of the neck deep ash-colour, 

 tinged with olive ; breast and under parts ash-colour, the feathers 

 margined with white at the ends ; under tail coverts black ; bend of 

 the wing white; quills dusky brown, the outer one edged with 

 white ; tail olive-brown ; the outer feather white, the shape a little 

 rounded ; legs olive brown ; garter yellow. 



Inhabits France, and is a solitary bird ; said to frequent the same 

 places with the Common Gallinule, of which it is thought to be in the 

 first year's plumage, but not mixing with that species: it lives on 

 the same food, and the flesh is like it in taste ; and if the same with 

 Aldrovandus's Rail, is taken in the neighbourhood of Venice, with 

 great ceremony. te A troop of servants wearing buskins, or high 

 " shoes, do, in the room of hunting dogs, wade up and down the 

 " shallow waters thereabouts, and put up these birds with certain 

 " clubs they carry, shaking and beating the shrubs and bushes where 

 " they lie, so that they may afterwards become a prey to the Falcons 

 " that wait for them ;" and the flesh is compared to that of a Thrush 

 or Quail.* We have seen this in India drawings; but the head, neck, 

 and under parts were dusky white. 



9— GREAT GALLINULE. 



Gallinula major, Bris. vi. p. 9. Id. Svo. ii. 360. 



Gallina chloropus altera, Raii, 114. Will. 133. 



Grande Poule d'Eau, ou La Porzane, Bnf. viii. 178. 



Das grosse braune Meerhuhn, Bechst. Deuts. iii. 248. 



The other green-footed Water-Hen, of Aldrovandus, Will. Engl. 313. 



Brown Gallinule, Gen. Syn. v. 261. Var. A. 



LARGER than the Common Species ; length eighteen or twenty 

 inches. Bill two and a quarter; the base and greater part of the 



