THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Australia, PI. 76, shows the peculiar scutellations of the tarsus, and the short 
hind toe peculiar to that genus. Had this figure ever been examined, the fallacy 
of attaching the Liverpool bird to Mantellornis w'ould have been apparent. 
I have very carefully measured the Liverpool bird once more, and my figures 
agree very closely with those given by Rowley and Forbes. They are : Tarsus 
83 ; middle toe without claw 68 ; outer toe without claw 59 ; inner toe without 
claw 50 ; hind toe without claw 28 ; naked front of the tibia 35 ; wing 226 ; biU 
(sheath missing) from tip to the end of the shield 62 ; from tip to beginning of 
the shield 38 mm. These measurements are taken from the bird as mounted, and 
consequently should not be absolutely compared with figures taken from skins, 
as regards the tarsus and toes. 
However, instead of a conspicuous difference, all these figures easily fall 
within the limits of P. 7nelanotus. Indeed, a small specimen from New Zealand 
chosen at random, gave measurements exceedingly close in every detail to those 
I have just quoted. Moreover, the scutellations of the tarsus and the toes agree 
so minutely with those of P. inelanotus, that I am compelled to assert that the 
Liverpool specimen not only is not referable to Mantellornis, but that it 
is undoubtedly only an albino of P. ^nelanotus ; consequently, the data 
that it arrived in June, 1771, and came from New Zealand, can be accepted. A 
further point in favour of this view, is the fact that New Zealand is noted 
for the albinistic tendencies of its avifauna. 
The texture of the feathers of the Liverpool bird was supposed to be soft 
as in Mantellornis, but with specimens of that genus in front of me, I do not find 
this ; on the contrary, they are exactly as in P. inelanotus. 
Rowley concluded that the bird had been volant ; and here again I must 
disagree with Forbes, who suggested it had been non-volant. The wing is quite 
like that of P. 7nelanotus, and just as unlike that of Mantellornis or of any other 
non-volant Rail. 
Sharpe, in the Cat. B. Brit. Mus., XXIII., referred P. stanleyi Rowley, to 
the synonymy of P. 7nelanotus, and so must I. 
It must be noted that Forbes was really quite doubtful as to the correctness 
of placing this bird in Mantellornis, though he argued well for that disposition. 
The other specimen of a “ White Gallinule ” is of greater interest, inasmuch 
as its history is undoubtedly well known. 
White* described Fulica alba and gave a figure. The specimens described 
in this work were, as we are informed, deposited in the Leverian Museum. 
When this museum was dispersed, the White GaUinule became the property of 
the Vienna Museum, where the skin is still preserved. I have been unable to see 
* Journal of a Voyage, to New South Wales, p. 238 (1790). 
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