244 
RUFOUS-TAILED WATER HEN. 
their covers are not lengthened. The bill and legs 
seem to have been dark-green in the living bird. 
Total length about 6 inches ; bill, gape, T s 5 ; 
front, ; wings, 3j% ; tarsus, lj 1 ^ ; middle toe and 
claw, l-j-fj ; hinder, S 7 S ; tail, base, 2. 
YELLOW-BILLED WATER HEN. 
Gallinida fiavirostra , Swains. 
PLATE XXVIII. 
Entirely deep and uniform black ; bill bright yellow ; eye- 
lids and feet red, 
Gallinula fiavirostra, Classif. Birds , ii, part 5, No. 170.* — Rail us 
niger ? Lath. Gen. Hist. ix. p. 380. 
To this species, which is probably one of those which 
pass under the general name of Black Rail, we have 
not affixed the specific name of Niger, because Dr. 
Latham’s account is too vague to be applied with- 
out doubt. He mentions, for instance, that the legs 
are either brown or red, that the end of the bill is 
brown, that the plumage in general is dusky-black, 
but deepest on the head, and that the claws are 
“ hooked.’’ As these discrepancies with our Sene- 
gal specimens lead to the suspicion that there may 
* On account of the bulk of the second volume, the publishers 
have omitted the fifth part, wherein was described 203 new 
birds referred to in the body of the work. This part, how- 
ever, is to appear in a subsequent volume, and proof sheets 
have been forwarded to our most distinguished ornithologists. 
