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Show 1891.] MR. P. L. SCLATER ON PORl'HYRIO POLIOCEPHALUS. 47 PLATE VI. Fig. 1. View on the side of respiratory orifice of Rhysota (?) brookei, showing the dorsal lobe and left shell-lobe (l.s.L), from spirit-spjcimen, nat. size, p. 28. 2. Mantle-margin, showing the contracted right shell-lobe and the anterior and posterior right dorsal lobes, p. 28. 3. The right shell-lobe, enlarged 2,5, viewed from above, p. 28. 3 a. View of same from below, nat. sze, p. 28. 4. Extremity of foot, seen from above, X 2 4, p. 28. 5. Animal removed from the shell; spirit-specimen. E, retracted eye-tentacles ; M, mouth ; B.Ap. and Sp.Ap., the generative aperture, with the orifices of the male organ and spermatheca, nat. size, p. 28. G. Generative organs, nat. size. h.d., hermaphrodite duct; Al.Gd., Albumen- gland; ov., oviduct; r.m.P., retractor muscle penis, p. 28. 7. .Taw, X 4, p. 29. 8. Teeth of radula, centrals, x 340, p. 29. 8a. Outermost laterals, x 340, p. 29. 9, 9a, Young shell, natural size, pp. 27, 28. January 20, 1891. W. T. Blanford, E<q., F.R.S., F.Z.S., in the Chair. Mr. Sclater exhibited specimens of three species of Purple Water-hens (Porphyrio poliocephalus, P. cceruleus, and P. smaragdonotus), and made the following remarks :- In 1879 ('Ibis,' 1879, p. 196) I pointed out that the Porphyrio of Southern Europe (Porphyrio hyacinthinus of Temminck, but of which a prior name was cceruleus of Vandelli) had no claim to the title " veierum," which had been applied to it by G. B. Gray (from a misunderstanding of a footnote in S. G. Gmeliu's ' Reise durch Russland'), and that Mr. Dresser and Mr. Elliot had both gone astray in following Gray's lead. Furthermore I suggested that the bird met with by Gmelin in the south of the Caspian would probably turn out to be the Indian species P. poliocephalus, which, however, misled by Schlegel, I called on that occasion P. pulverulentus. That 1 was right in m y conjecture, aud that the Caspian Porphyrio is really the same as the Indian species, is now well known to us from examination of specimens transmitted from that district by Dr. Radde, some of which, by Mr. Dresser's kind permission, are now on the table before us. Mr. Seebohm (' Ibis,' 1884, p. 429) was, I believe, the first to show the identity of the Caspian and Indian birds, which I can fully confirm after comparison of the present specimens with Indian skins in the British Museum. For comparison with the Caspian bird I place on the table examples of P. cceruleus from Sardinia and Sicily and of P. smaragdonotus from Egvpt, kindly lent me for this purpose by Mr. E. C. Taylor. The latter species, as is well known, also occurs occasionally as a straggler in Sicily (see Giglioli, 'Avifauna Italica,' p. 356). It is, I believe, the only Porphyrio found in Egypt, aud extends into Southern Africa and Madagascar. |
