Order GEALL^.] 
[Fam-. EALLID^. 
POEPHYEIO MELANONOTUS*. 
(SWAMP-HEN.) 
Porphyrio melamtus, Temm. Man. d’Orn. ii. p. 701 (1820). 
Black-hached GalUnule, Lath. Gen. Hist. ix. p. 427 (1824). 
PoTphyrio melanotus, Buller, Birds of N. Z. 1st ed. p. 185 (1873). 
Native names . — Pukeko and Pakura f . 
Ad. supr&, nigricans, scapnlaribns et rectricibns vix brunneo externe lavatis : collo postico et laterali, tectricibus 
alarum, genis et corpore subtus sordid^ cseruleis : remigibus nigris, primariis extus obscure caeruleo lavatis : 
mento cum abdomine imo et cruribus nigris : subcaudalibus albis ; rostro et pedibus pallide coccineis : iride 
Isete coccinea. 
Adult male. Head and nape sooty black ; back and upper surface of wings and tail shining black, glossed in 
some specimens with green ; neck, breast, sides of the body, outer edges and lining of wings bright indigo - 
blue; abdomen and feathered portion of tibia sooty black, tinged more or less with indigo-blue; under 
tail-coverts pure white. Irides cherry-red ; frontal plate and bill bright cherry-red, paler on the edges, 
yellowish towards the tips of both mandibles; legs and feet pale lake-red, brownish at the joints. Total 
length 21 inches ; extent of wings 36-5 ; wing, from flexure, ll'S ; tail 4-6 ; frontal plate, across the top, 1 ; 
from posterior edge of frontal plate to the tip of upper mandible 2-75 ; bill, along the edge of lower mandible, 
1-75 ; bare portion of tibia I'S ; tarsus 4 ; middle toe and claw 4-75 ; hind toe and claw 2. 
Female. Somewhat smaller in all its proportions, with the colours of the plumage duller and the bill and legs of 
a paler red. 
Young. Has duller plumage, with the chin pale brown, the fore neck and breast more or less tipped, and the 
abdomen and flanks strongly suffused, with pale brown. 
Younger- states. The following descriptive notes on a series of specimens will exhibit at a glance the changes 
that take place in the young in their progress towards maturity : — 
No. 1 (newly hatched) . Covered with dense black down, the head, neck, wings, and back thickly 
sprinkled with white points; bill greyish white, black at the tip ; legs purplish grey. 
No. 2 (a few days older). Presents fewer of the white points, which are in reality terminal sheaths 
and are rapidly cast off. 
No. 3 (about ten days old) . Covered with sooty down ; on the back and sides of the head, also on the 
wing, numerous stiff hair-like filaments with white apices; bill dusky black, greyish in the centre and white 
near the tip; frontal plate soft and of a reddish flesh-colour; crown of the head without any down, but 
covered with black thick-set bristles, whicb arc continued over the eyes to the beak, and are long and 
* The description of Porpligrio cgamcejrlialus, Yieill. N. Diet. d’Hist. Nat. xxviii. p. 28 (1819), appears to agree with the 
above, but no locality is assigned ; and in the absence of more positive proof that it relates to the same bird, I am unwilling to 
sink so well-established a name as P. melanonotus. 
t So called by the Ngatipukoko tribe of Whakatane ; just as the Ngatikahungunu called the hapuhu “ Kauaeroa ” (long-jaw), 
in deference to the old chief to whom the name of that fish had been applied, and as the Ngapuhi changed the name of the 
Wood-Pigeon from KuJevpa to Kulcu, out of respect to Te Tirarau’s father, who had taken the former name. 
