250 Mr. J. H. Gurney’s List of a Collection of Birds 
this Gallinule, which he procured in Natal, but did not shoot 
it himself. 
59. Podica petersii, Hartlaub. Peters’s Einfoot. 
Rare, and exceedingly shy. Frequents the rocky streams 
of the interior of the country ; can scarcely rise from the water; 
generally flies along the surface, aiding itself with its feet, which 
are lobed^; when disturbed it hides under the banks, similarly 
to the Moor-hen in England. The legs are bright red, and the 
eye dark. Feeds on freshwater shrimps and small fish. 
[This species, which is considerably larger than the P. senega- 
lensis of West Africa, was described by Dr. Hartlaub in 1851, 
under the name of Podica petersii , in honour of Professor Peters, 
who first discovered it in Mozambique, and who subsequently 
(in 1856) himself described it under the name of Podica mo - 
sambica. It has also been designated by Lichtenstein, in the 
Berlin Museum, Heliornis impipi (vide note on Podica senega - 
lensis in Hartlaub’s ‘ Ornithology of West Africa,’ p. 250). 
During the breeding-season, the feathers on the crown of the 
head, the nape of the neck, and the upper part of the back of 
this bird, which are ordinarily of an olive-brown colour, show an 
edging of bluish-black with a metallic lustre. 
consider it new. It is a typical Gallinula of small size, whence I propose 
to call it 
Gallinula pumila, sp. nov. 
Supra saturate umbrino-brunnea, cervice, uropygio laterali et alis externe 
cinerascentibus : subtus albicanti-cinerea, gula pallidiore, albicante ; 
pectore et ventris lateribus brunneo perfusis: cauda nigra, hujus 
rectricibus extus brunnescente vix tinctis; caudae tectricibus infe- 
rioribus, crissum nigrum circumdantibus, albis: liypochondriis cine- 
rascenti-brunneis, plumis quibusdam albis ornatis: rostro flavo, cul- 
mine brunnescente: scuto frontali trigono, verticem versus colore 
coccineo terminato: pedibus pallide flavicanti-brunneis : long, tota 
9*7, alae 5*0, caudae 2*5, tarsi 1*5. 
The frontal shield of this bird is terminated in two straight lines which 
form the sides of an isosceles and nearly equilateral triangle, with a line 
drawn across the culmen and joining the points where the feathering 
terminates for its base. The edge of this shield next to the feathers 
appears to have been bright crimson in the living bird. The long white 
spots on the elongated feathers of the flanks, and black crissum surrounded 
by the pure white subcaudals, are highly characteristic of the genus of 
which it is a member. Mr. Wolf’s drawing (Plate VII.) will, I think, 
render the species easily recognizable. 
