344 



OLIVACEOUS GALL1NULE. 



of an inch long-, of a greenish-yellow colour, the base red ; irides and 

 orbits bright red, inclining to orange ; cheeks and forehead dusky 

 cinereous ; sides of the neck and throat pale cinereous ; breast, belly, and 

 thighs plain dark cinereous or slate-colour, like the water-rail, without 

 spots or markings of any kind ; the back of the head deep olive-brown ; 

 hind neck lighter, being of a yellowish-olive ; the feathers of the back 

 have a mixture of olive-brown and dusky-black, the margins being 

 mostly of the former colour, with paler edges ; scapulars dusky-black, 

 with broad olive margins ; coverts of the wings olive-brown ; quills 

 dusky, the outer webs edged with olive ; rump and upper coverts of 

 the tail very dark olive-brown, with a mixture of dusky-black ; the 

 feathers of the tail are of a deep dusky-brown, the shafts paler and the 

 lateral ones margined with olive-yellow ; vent and under coverts of the 

 tail dusky-cinereous, some of the feathers deeply margined with sullied 

 white ; sides behind the thighs olive, slightly margined as the last ; the 

 legs, toes, and knees olive. 



The tail, when examined by Mr. Foljambe, had only ten feathers ; 

 but this must be considered as accidental, as we believe all the species 

 of this genus have invariably twelve feathers in that part when perfect. 

 It is rather rounded at the end, the exterior feathers being half an inch 

 shorter than the middle ones. 



When this bird was first examined, it was suspected to be the Soree 

 Gallinule, Gallinula Carolina of Index Ornithologicus, but except in 

 size, it has no other characters of that bird, for all authors record that 

 species as having a bare space on the forehead ; a circumstance not 

 unusual in several of the genus, exemplified in the common Gallinule. 

 The face round the bill, the chin, and part of the neck before, is in the 

 Soree black. Mr. Pennant says, the greater part of the front of the 

 neck is deep black ; the belly and sides dirty white, the latter barred 

 downwards with black. 



Highly laudable as it is, to avoid a useless multiplication of spe- 

 cies, yet we must not conclude the subject is exhausted, and that 

 new objects are not to be found, even within our own limited sphere. 

 Some of the aquatic birds belong equally perhaps to the north of both 

 the American and European continents, as the distance between these 

 two quarters of the globe is there not very distant, or at least is in a 

 manner connected by an extended chain of islands that may favour an 

 interchange ; but we must consider, that whatever migrations take 

 place from the higher latitudes of either country, on the approach 

 of the rigorous season they are performed over land, or coastwise 

 southerly, each in their respective country, which could not be the case 



