

GALLINULA SANDVICENSIS. 



ALAE or ALAI. 



" Common Water or darker [qu. daker?] hen/' King, Voy. Paeif. Ocean, iii. p. 120 (1784). 



Fulica chloropus, Bloxam, Voy. ' Blonde/ p. 250 (1826) (nee Linn.). 



Gallinula chloropus, Peale, U.S. Expl. Exped., Birds, p. 220 (1848) ; Hartlaub, Arch. f. Naturgescli. 



1852, i. pp. 118, 137 ; Dole, Proc. Boston Soc. N. H. xii. p. 302 (1869) ; id. Hawaiian Alman. 



1879, p. 53. 



Gallinula ?, G. B. Gray, Cat. B. Trop. Isl. p. 53 (1859). 



Gallinula galeata, G. R. Gray, Hand-1. B. iii. p. 66 (partim) (1871). 



Gallinula sandvicensis, Streets, Ibis, 1877, p. 25 (fig. of forehead) ■ id. Contr. N. H. Haw. & Fanning 



Isl. p. 19 (1877) ■ Fins'ch, Ibis, 1880, p. 78. 

 "Gallinula galeata sandvicensis," Stejneger, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 1887, p. 78; id. op. cit. xii. 



p. 380 (1889). 



Although King, Bloxam, and Peale all met with this Water-Hen, they did not 

 distinguish it from the American form of G. chlorojms, since called G. galeata; but 

 in 1877 Dr. Streets endeavoured to show, by means of a full description and figure- of 

 the forehead in 'The Ibis,' that it should be separated as G. sandvicensis. The points 

 of distinction, however, on which he relied are by no means constant, and, if it were 

 not for the colour of the front of the tarsi, the bird could hardly claim even sub- 

 specific rank. This colouring is said by Peale to be " pale crimson blush ; " by 

 Dr. Streets to be " decided crimson blush ; " and though Dr. Stejneger was at first in- 

 clined to doubt whether such was invariably the case, Judge Dole has informed me that in 

 the freshly-killed bird the legs are " salmon-colour ; " while a specimen in my collection 

 shows unmistakable signs of red coloration on the same parts. In 1890 Dr. Stejneger 

 received further examples with decidedly red tarsi. Whether, however, the bird is to 

 be considered a species or subspecies, I have thought it best to figure it under the 

 above title as an island form of considerable interest, leaving it to those who prefer 

 doing so to denominate it G. galeata sandvicensis. The habits do not seem to differ 

 from those of the American or the European Water-Hen. 



Dr. Stejneger's full account is here reproduced ; while I may add that there is an 

 unfinished sketch by W. Ellis among his drawings preserved in the British Museum, 

 evidently meant to represent this species. The former says (P. U.S. Nat. Mus. 188? 

 p. 78):- 



" Mr. Knudsen sends two specimens of this representative form of the American 

 G. galeata, Licht., which, compared with Streets' type and typical specimens of 



