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of the Mascarene Islands. 
much longer and very much thinner than in our bird; 4thly, 
Flamingos have a tail which is much shorter, has a different 
shape, and is never carried erect; 5thly, the legs in the 
Flamingo are much longer and for the greater part bare, whereas 
in our bird they are covered with feathers pretty nearly as 
far as the tarsus; 6thly, the Flamingo has much shorter fore¬ 
toes, united by a swimming-membrane, and an extremely small 
hind-toe, whereas in our bird, both according to the figure and 
to the description, the toes are extraordinarily long and quite 
free; T'thly, the colour of the Flamingo is in the young grey, 
in the old more or less generally red, and never white as in our 
bird; 8thly and lastly, the whole of Strickland’s supposition fails, 
seeing that, as we have mentioned above, Leguat knew very 
well what sort of appearance a Flamingo had. 
For ourselves we do not hesitate a moment to declare that 
this Geant of Leguat’s was a Waterhen, and this for the 
following reasons :—1st, this bird has the habitus of the Water- 
hens to such a degree that anybody who has a little experience 
in the recognition of animal-forms will take it for one; 2ndly, 
the extraordinarily long toes argue to the same conclusion; 3rdly, 
the form of the tail, with the under-coverts reaching to its end, 
and its erect attitude, is exactly as in the Waterhens; 4thly, 
Leguat’s figure shows distinctly that the upper mandible was 
prolonged in a kind of rounded plate, which extended over the 
forehead and eyes, just as we see in the more typical Water- 
hens, namely Gallinula, Porphyrio, and Fulica ; 5thly and lastly, 
Leguat’s expressions “gibier” and “assez bon” can also be 
applied to the Waterhens. 
When we have agreed that this bird belongs to the family of 
Waterhens—and I really do not know in what other group we 
could with any probability place it—then arises the question, 
under what genus of this family could we more positively 
arrange it. That it cannot be regarded as a Coot ( Fulica ) its 
toes, not bordered by lobed membranes, show. It should 
therefore be assigned rather to the genus Porphyrio or Gallinula ; 
d’lnde, et le bee aussi,” we, in like manner, do not conclude that these 
parts were formed exactly as in the Turkey, but that they had a general 
resemblance. 
