Page:DawsonOrnithologicalMiscVol1.djvu/93

Rh feathered three parts down. Frontal plate going to back of the eye, as usual in this genus ; hind toe relatively longer than in Notornis. Claws short and curved. Body lighter than in Notornis; figure quite different. Wings longer than in Notornis, sharp, and feathers pointed. Primaries nearly 2 inches longer than secondaries, hard. Apparently a bird of good flight. On bend of wing, concealed by feathers, a sharp spur. Differs from Gallinula, in which the wing-spur is sometimes found as a knob only.

Colour: indications of first dress being brown or black, perhaps second dress blue, third dress white ; but all these uncertain.

Now in Liverpool Museum, formerly in Lord Derby's Museum, first in Bullock's Museum.

The present example is probably a young bird.

As it is commonly impossible to tell the colour of the soft parts, legs, beak, &c. from a faded skin (from which this Plate was taken), these are not to be regarded as of any authority in the present illustration*. The bill is so badly broken in both mandibles that it would have looked an absurdity to copy it ; therefore this has been drawn as it is supposed it should be. There are some brown feathers on the occiput ; and it appears quite a young bird. The legs were in a very soft condition and swollen when the bird was killed and skinned, there being several folds in, and air-spaces under, the skin of the tarsus. It seems to have lost its original colour by moulting. When placed in a good clear light, the entire plumage appears to be yellowish white ; but the parts most turned away from the light present a beautiful bluish gloss : a reflection is much enhanced by placing a sheet of white paper under it as a reflector ; then the so coloured parts assume a brilliancy almost equal to phosphoric light, like mother-of-pearl. On the right side of the head are

Dr. Buller says, in the Birds of New Zealand, of Porphyrio melanotus, p. 186:—"The colours of the bill and legs are regulated by conditions of age and sex ; but they likewise differ somewhat in richness in individual examples of the male."