308 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



This species is frequently mentioned by Dr. Pickering in Oregon, 

 and subsequently on the Sacramento Eiver, and at other points in 

 California. In the latter country, he alludes to it as quite abundant 

 in the month of October, and on the Sacramento. He says : " In all the 

 specimens seen, the frontal enlargement of the bill seemed particularly 

 conspicuous. This bird was seen swimming in the river." 



4. Genus PORPHYRIO, Brisson, Orn. V, p. 523 (1760). 



1. PORPHTRIO INDICUS, Eorsfield. 



Porphyrio indicus, HoRSF. Trans. Linn. Soc. London, XIII, p. 19-4 (1822). 

 Porphjrio smaragcUnus, Temm. PI. Col. V (liv. 71, about 1825). 

 Porphyriu samoensis, Peale, Zool. Exp. Exp. Birds, p. 220 (1st ed. 1848).* 



Temm. PL Col. 421. 



With several specimens before us in the collection of the Expedi- 

 tion, and numerous others from the Museum of the Philadelphia Aca- 

 demy, we fail to perceive any characters indicative of distinction in 

 species. All the former are, however, from the Samoan Islands, while 

 the latter are from Java, Sumatra, and other islands of the Malay 

 Archipelago. There is, therefore, a wide difference in locality, but 

 we can at present only conclude on identity. 



Mr. Peale observes of the present bird : 



" This species was found to be abundant in all the fresh-water ponds 

 of the Island of Upolu, one of the Samoan Group, and were also fre- 

 quently flushed from grassy meadows." 



* "Bill and vertex crimson ; feet yellow, dashed with crimson; cheeks, and occiput 

 black ; back, scapulars, and greater wing-coverts, olive-brown ; wings and tail black, 

 with a tinge of blue-green on their outer webs; neck and belly ultramarine blue; breast 

 and upper margin of the wing cobalt blue ; all the plumage of the body black next to 

 the body, and having white shafts ; under tail-coverts white. 



" Total length, seventeen and two-tenths inches ; wing, from the carpal joint, nine 

 and four-tenths inches ; bill, from the back of the frontal plate, two and a half inches ; 

 from the corner of the mouth, one and seven-tenths inches; depth of the upper mandible 

 at its base, eleven-twentieths of an inch ; depth of the lower mandible, three-tenths of 

 an inch; tarsi, three and two-tenths inches; middle toe, including the nail, three and 

 eight-tenths inches ; nail, seven-tenths of an inch ; hind toe, one and eight-tenths inches ; 

 nail, thirteen-twentieths of an inch." 



