Genus— I REDIPARRA. 
Iredipabra Mathews, Nov. ZooL, Vol. XVIII., p. 7, 1911 
Type I. gallinacea Temminck. 
Hydralector Auct., not Hydralector Wagler. 
Jacanine birds with short bills, peculiar facial ornament, long wings, short 
tails, and long toes with very long claws. 
The culmen is short with a notable rhamphotheca, the nostrils pervious 
and placed before the middle of the mandible in a shallow groove ; no groove 
present in the lower mandible. At the base of the mandible arises a large 
leaf-like lappet of bare skin with a thin erect upright comb running up the 
centre of the head. The wing is long and the primaries are normal in shape ; 
the first primary is longest ; the tail is short and rounded ; the metatarsus 
long and regularly scuteUate, the scutes sometimes fusing ; the toes are 
very long, not webbed either internally or externally; and the claws are 
longer, quite straight, and tapering to a fine point. The claw of the hind toe 
is extraordinarily lengthened, being longer than the hind toe and the 
metatarsus. 
The use of Irediparra is necessary for the reasons given at its 
introduction at the place stated above — ^which may be here summarised. 
Wagler split up the Jacanine birds into many genera, and in the Isis 1832, 
p. 279, he proposed Metopidius for “Latham’s Parra africana und Cuvier’s 
Parra cenea.'^^ In the List Genera Birds 1840, p. 71, Gray selected Cuvier’s 
Parra mnea as the type of Metopidius, and this action must be respected, 
though it is more than probable that Wagler intended his genus to be based 
upon Latham’s Parra africana. However, no question can now be raised, 
and Metopidius has been constantly used in this connection. 
On p. 280 {Isis) Wagler then separated the genus Hydralector for 
“Viefilot’s Parra cristata, Nouv. Diet. 16, p. 450, und Temminck’s Parra 
gallinacea, PI. Col.” Gray selected as type of Hydralector, Vieillot’s Parra 
cristata — and no exception can be made to this determination. It was later 
found that Parra gallinacea Temminck was not congeneric with Vieillot’s 
bird, which was also shown to be identical with Cuvier’s Parra cenea, of which 
the earliest name was Parra indica. Then Hydralector was allotted to 
Temminck’s bird, though really it was an absolute synonym of Metopidius. 
No excuse can be made for this transference, so that it was incumbent 
upon me to find a new name for the Australian bird, and I therefore 
introduced Irediparra. 
314 
