Aramides includes eight species found in Central and South America, of which A. ypecaha may be taken as a representative. It is olive-green above, with chestnut nape, black rump and tail, and greyish below with white throat and vinous belly; the bill is yellow, the feet are scarlet. Cautious when danger threatens, it is sufficiently audacious to attack poultry; among its native swamps it usually walks in stately style or struts on the branches of trees, though it can run quickly; while it lies closely when surprised on open ground, dashing up with the whirring flight of a Partridge. The alarm-note is powerful, unearthly shrieks being uttered during both day and night. Companies are described by Mr. Hudson as meeting to dance about with expanded wings and open beaks.[[172]] Somewhat similar in colour to certain members of the last genus is Megacrex inepta of South New Guinea, one of the largest Rails known, which is usually seen running swiftly along water-courses; while the black Habroptila wallacii of Halmahera loves forests. The curious Himantornis haematopus of West Africa is brown, with black and rufous mottlings above, whitish throat, stout green and black bill, and red feet. Dryolimnas cuvieri of Madagascar, Mauritius, and Aldabra Island, and Canirallus kioloïdes of the first-named and West Africa must be briefly mentioned, as must Rallina reaching from India to North-East Australia, which has half a dozen small brown species, with chestnut on the head and chest, and black and white barring below.
Fig. 50.–Land-Rail. Crex pratensis. × ¼.
Crex pratensis, the widely-ranging Corn-Crake or Land-Rail, extends from most of Europe to the north of Central Asia, wintering in Africa, and occurring accidentally in North America, or even Greenland and Australia. Zapornia parva, the Little Crake, Porzana maruetta, the Spotted Crake, and P. bailloni, Baillon's Crake, are somewhat similar British Birds, the two latter of which have bred in our islands, P. maruetta still doing so in some districts. This species is brownish-olive with white flecks above and below, grey belly, and flanks showing black and white bars. Of its dozen congeners, covering nearly the whole globe, P. carolina, the Sora Rail of North America, is particularly well-known. In the Ethiopian genus Corethrura, extending to Madagascar, the males are blackish, spotted or streaked with white, and have fine chestnut heads, necks, or even breasts, the female being dusky with rufous mottlings: in Rallicula of New Guinea the chestnut extends over most of the body. Porzanula palmeri of Laysan, an interesting little flightless form with a soft chirping note, which the first discoverer caught with a hand-net, makes its nest under grass-tussocks. Closely allied to Porzana is Creciscus, a genus of a dozen species ranging from the United States to the Galápagos, Chili, and Paraguay; two at least of them being remarkable for building a spherical nest with a side entrance in coarse herbage or low bushes, while one is said to make a sort of ladder to reach a platform before its porch.[[173]] Limnocorax niger of the Ethiopian Region is a glossy black bird with red feet and greenish bill, which walks upon the leaves of water-lilies and such plants, like a Jaçana.
Amaurornis, inhabiting the Oriental Region and extending to New Britain, links the foregoing genera to the Gallinules. A. phoenicura is a dark greyish bird with white under parts and chestnut flanks, the other three species being duller.
Tribonyx mortieri, the "Native Hen" of Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania, and T. ventralis of considerably wider range, are respectively ruddy- and olive-brown forms, with blackish tail and vent, slaty lower surface, and white flank-marks. They appear at times in flocks, which arrive and depart with equal suddenness, destroy the settlers' crops, strut about like fowls, and in many respects resemble Moor-Hens in habits, nests, and eggs. The legs are unusually powerful.
Gallinula extends over the greater part of both hemispheres, and is represented in Europe, Asia, and Africa by our common Moor-Hen (G. chloropus), dark olive-brown above and grey below, with white lower tail-coverts, white flank-stripes, red frontal plate, and scarlet garter on the tibia. G. galeata of most of the New World differs in the posteriorly truncated shield, but G. sandvicensis of the Sandwich Islands is barely separable. The smaller African G. angulata, G. tenebrosa of Australia and New Guinea, and G. frontata of the two last-named countries, the Moluccas and Borneo, complete the group; unless G. pyrrhorhoa of Madagascar and G. dionysiana of St. Denys be accounted distinct from G. chloropus. The flightless G. (Porphyriornis) nesiotis of Tristan da Cunha and G. comeri of Gough Island have already been mentioned. Gallicrex cinerea, the "Water-Cock" of the Indian Region, which reaches Japan, is dull black, with lighter edges to the feathers above, a yellow and red bill, and red frontal shield. A pinkish fleshy horn springs from the forehead, said to become very small in winter, and to be wanting in the female, which is varied below with white and buff. It has a loud booming cry, and fights like a domestic Cock, but otherwise resembles the Gallinules in habits.
Porphyrio comprises some dozen fine species with blue plumage, found in Africa and Madagascar, and from the Mediterranean to South China and Polynesia; several individuals, probably escaped from captivity, being recorded from Britain. P. caeruleus (veterum) is purplish-blue above with blacker remiges and rectrices, and purplish-black below with bright blue cheeks, throat, and chest, and white under tail-coverts; the bill, shield, and feet are red. It is chiefly a Mediterranean bird, but reaches Mesopotamia. Others of its congeners are greener or blacker. The habits, nest, and eggs are like those of the Coot, whereas the next genus–in the writer's opinion inseparable–appears more akin in manners to the Moor-Hen. Porphyriola alleni occurs in Africa, with Madagascar and Rodriguez, and strays to the Canary Islands and South Europe; P. martinica ranges from Florida, Texas, or even New England, to the West Indies and Brazil; P. parva, from the last-named to Amazonia and Guiana. Porphyriops crassirostris and P. melanops occupy South America.
Notornis mantelli of New Zealand,[[174]] now probably extinct, was olive-green above with only a tinge of blue; the head, neck, and under surface being dark purplish-blue, the bill, shield, and feet red. It was practically a gigantic Porphyrio with very stout legs, short wings, and soft tail, which was unable to fly, but ran with great swiftness, being solitary and retiring. Its native name Moho is that also given to other Rails in New Zealand, and Pennula ecaudata in Hawaii; it therefore may only mean "Rail." The white N. alba of Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands certainly exists no longer.
Fulica includes twelve species, of which the majority are South American, though the genus extends over most of the globe; Polynesia possesses only F. alai of the Sandwich Islands, but three of the members reach Patagonia. F. atra, our grey-black Coot, with flesh-coloured bill, white shield and greenish legs relieved by an orange garter, ranges through Europe and Asia, and to North Africa and the Philippines southwards; its habits are well-known, while the lobed toes are noticed above. The smaller F. lugubris of Sumatra, Java, and Celebes is hardly distinct; the North American F. americana and the Australian F. australis are very similar; the Andean F. gigantea is extremely large; while the red frontal caruncles of the Bolivian F. cornuta and of the African and South-European F. cristata have already been mentioned.