352 
GEOGRAPHICAL ZOOLOGY. 
[part IV. 
species ranging’ over half the globe. They are found in many re- 
mote islands ; and in some of these — as the Gallinula of Tristan 
d’Acunha, and the N'otornis of Lord Howe’s Island and Hew Zea- 
land, — they have lost the power of flight. The classification of 
the Eallidse is not satisfactory, and the following enumeration of 
the genera must only he taken as affording a provisional sketch 
of the distribution of the group : — 
Rallus (18 sp.), Porzana (24 sp.), Qallinula (17 sp.), and 
Fulica (10 sp.), have a world-wide range ; Orlygometra (1 sp.), 
ranges over the whole North Temperate zone ; Porphyria (14 sp.), 
is more especially Oriental and Australian, but occurs also in 
South America, in Africa, and in South Europe; Eulabeornis 
(15 sp.), is Ethiopian, Malayan, and Australian; Himantornis (1 
sp.), is West African only ; Aramides (24 sp.), is North and 
South American ; Ballina (16 sp.), is Oriental, but ranges east- 
ward to Papua ; Habroptila (1 sp.), is confined to the Moluccas ; 
Pareudiastes (1 sp.), the Samoa Islands ; Tribonyx (4 sp.), is 
Australian, and has recently been found also in Hew Zealand ; 
Ocydromus (4 sp.) ; Notornis (2 sp.), (Plate XIII. Yol. I. p. 455) ; 
and Cabalus (1 sp.), are peculiar to the Hew Zealand group. 
The sub-family, Heliornithinse (sometimes classed as a distinct 
family) consists of 2 genera, Hdiornis (1 sp.), confined to the 
Heotropical region ; and Podica (4 sp.), the Ethiopian region ex- 
cluding Madagascar, and with a species (perhaps forming mother 
genus) in Borneo. 
Extinct Rallidai. — Eemains of some species of this family have 
been found in the Mascarene Islands, and historical evidence 
shows that they have perhaps been extinct little more than a 
century. They belong to the genus Fulica , and to two extinct 
genera, Aphanapteryx and Erythromachus. The Aphanapteryx 
was a large bird of a reddish colour, with loose plumage, and 
perhaps allied to Ocydromus, Erythromachus was much smaller, 
of a grey-and- white colour, and is said to have lived chiefly on 
the eggs of the land-tortoises. (See Ibis, 1869, p. 256 ; and 
Proc. Zool Soc., 1875, p. 40.) 
