77 



GEALLATOEES. 



Family RALLIBjE. (Bonaparte.) 



Geiiiis PoRPHYRio. fBrisson.J 



Generic Characters. — Beak strong, hard, thick, conic, nearly 

 as deep as long, shorter than the head; upper mandible de- 

 pressed and dilated, so as to occupy at its origin the entire 

 forehead and part of the vertex. Nostrils lateral, round, 

 situated at the end of the basal third of the upper mandible, 

 and pierced from side to side through the substance of the 

 beak. Legs long and strong; toes very long in some species, 

 , the anterior entirely divided, and all of them fringed by a 

 slight narrow membrane. "Wings medium size; the first primary 

 shorter than the second, third, and fourth, which are each 

 longer than the other. 



PUEPLE WATERHEN. 



Porphyrio hyacinthinus. 



Porjohyrio hyacinthinus, Temminck, 1820. 



" veterum, Gmelin. 



" antiquorum, Bonapaete. 



Fulica poryhyrio, Pallas, 1811-31. 



Taleve Porphyrion, Of the Feench. 



Europaisches Purpurhuhn, Of the G-ermans. 



Polio Sultano, Savi. 



Specific Characters. — The middle toe longer than the tarsus. 

 Primaries purple on their external web; under tail coverts white. 

 Length seventeen inches; carpus to tip ten inches and a half; 



