344 
OLIVACEOUS GALLINULE. 
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-brov/n 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 tv/elve 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. 
Plighly 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 
