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GALLINULA RUFICRISSA, Gowa.
Rufous-vented Gallinule.

Gallinula ruficrissa, Gould in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 4th ser., vol. iv. p. 110.

 

For a knowledge of the existence of this new species of Gallinule I am indebted to Mr. F. G. Waterhouse,
Curator of the Museum of the South Australian Institute at Adelaide, South Australia, who, in a note ac-
companying the specimen from which my figure was taken, states that it was obtained from Mr. Rainbird, a
collector, who shot it on the Cape River, in Queensland. Mr. Waterhouse was under the impression that
it was a new species of Z>zbonyx, but it appears to me to be more nearly allied to the genus Gallinula.
With the assistance of Mr. G. R. Gray I have carefully compared it with all the members of the last-men-
tioned genus in the British Museum, also with the descriptions of all the known species; and we cannot find
one with which it can be considered identical. I have therefore characterized it as new. Its nearest ally
appears to be the Gallinula olivacea of Meyen, from Manilla (vide Nova Acta, 1834, p. 109, t. 20); but that
bird is of larger size, and is of still greater disproportion in the length of its legs.

It gives me great pleasure to figure this species so soon after its discovery, since it may incite collectors
to obtain additional specimens and some information respecting its habits and economy, of which at present
nothing is known.

The features which distinguish the Gallinula ruficrissa from the typical members of the genus are the
absence of white spots on the flanks, and the uniform pale rufous colouring of the vent and under tail-
coverts; it is this latter character that allies it to the G@. ofeacea, in which the same parts are similarly
coloured, while in the other Gallinules they are black and white; in my opinion the Gadlnula phenicura
perhaps the Gallinula Akool, of India, are also nearly allied to it. .

Professor Reichenbach bas instituted the genus Amaurornis for the reception of the G. olivacea, wath
which the late Prince Bonaparte associates the G. femoralis of Tschudi; it is for ornithologists to decide
upon the propriety of such a separation. ; i enn

Head, all the upper surface, wings, and tail brownish olive ; sides of the face, neck, toe _ Be
surface deep olive-grey; vent and under tail-coverts pale rusty red ; bill greenish yellow, with a mark of rec
on the base of the culmen; legs and feet greenish yellow.

( i ing Pl. : ry ; specimen, are of the natural size.
The figures in the accompanying Plate, both drawn from the same s| ad

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