WATER-HENS. 
449 
that “ the localities it affects are marsh-lands and the sides of rivers. It was daily 
seen by me on the Government demesne at New Norfolk, Tasmania, where it 
frequently left its sedgy retreat, and walked about the paths and other parts of 
the garden, with its tail erect like the common hen. Even here, however, the 
greatest circumspection and quietude were necessary to obtain a sight of it; for 
the slightest noise- or movement excited its suspicions, and in an instant it vanished 
in the most extraordinary manner into some thicket, from which it did not again 
emerge until all apparent cause for alarm was past. Its habits and general manners 
are very similar to those of the moor-hen, but it does not dive or swim so much as 
that bird. It is very easily captured with a common horsehair noose. The nest, 
which is very similar to that of the moor-hen, is formed of a bundle of rushes 
placed on the border of the stream; eggs seven in number.” In the following 
genera the toes are long, the third toe and claw exceeding the metatarsus in length. 
Passing over the common water-hen ( Gallinula ) and its allies, in which the 
toes, although not lobed like 
those of the coots, have a narrow 
lateral membrane, and the nos¬ 
trils are oval and situated in a 
distinct nasal depression, we find 
in South-Eastern Asia and the 
adjacent islands a large species 
known as the water-cock ( Galli- 
crex cinerea), distinguished by 
having no lateral membrane on 
the toes. The male has the 
plumage black, the upper-parts 
especially, the wing-coverts being 
edged with grey, and the scapu¬ 
lars and lower back with brown, 
while the under tail-coverts are 
buff' barred with black. The 
female is browner and has the wing-coverts grey, while the under-parts are 
buff with dusky bars, except the throat and middle of the belly, which are 
white. 
Gaiiinuies The most striking birds of this group, as regards brilliance of 
and Coots, colouring, are the purple gaiiinuies ( Porphyrio ), with their handsome 
blue and purple plumage, variously shaded with dark green, olive-brown, and black. 
Closely allied to these is Mantell’s gallinule ( Notornis mantelli), a native of New 
Zealand, now nearly, if not quite, extinct, and the white form (A. alba), which 
formerly inhabited Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands. Finally, we must mention 
the coots ( Fidica ), at once recognised by their lobed toes. In habits they resemble 
both ducks and gaiiinuies, being able not only to swim and dive well, but to thread 
their way through grass and reeds with ease and swiftness. In rising they flap 
along the surface of the water, and fly like rails with their legs dangling; and 
their notes resemble those of the gaiiinuies, but are more harsh and grating. The 
distribution of the genus is cosmopolitan. 
vol. iv .—29 
