several brown feathers, which are wanting on the left side. The three or four brownish and bluish feathers on the scapularies and wing-coverts are very symmetrical in their distribution. The middle tail-feathers are bluish, the outer white, though many of the tail-feathers, particularly the under ones, are lost. There is a very sharp nail on the inside of the wing, quite con- cealed by feathers, about 1¾ inch from the bend of the wing.
I have been particular in these details because this unique skin is very old, was never in very good condition, and cannot be expected to last. Therefore this attempt to lay before the readers of the ' Ornithological Miscellany' an account of it and rescue it from the obliterating grasp of time will, I hope, be looked upon with a lenient eye.
There is no notice of the Leverian bird (the Nofornis alba of Pelzeln and Salvin) in the 'Museum Leverianum' by George Shaw, published by James Parkinson, 1792.
Several Gallinules are mentioned in Bullock's 'Catalogue ;' but there is no doubt as to the identity of the bird under consideration. On the twenty-first day's sale (Thursday, June 3), p. 128, lot 54, appears "Common Gallinule, from Tristan D'Ancunha; and the Red-necked Grebe. Ryall, 7s. 0d." This, most likely, is the same species as the Island-Hen of Tristan d'Acunha, Gallinula nesiotis, Sclater (P.Z.S. 1861, p. 260, pl. xxx.), which example is now in the British Museum and is stated to have been "the first of its kind that reached Europe alive or dead." Bullock's bird, if my conjecture is correct, is a previous one.
As this Gallinule is probably extinct, it would be desirable to know what became of Bullock's specimen. In G.R. Gray's 'Catalogue of Grallæ &c. of the British Museum' (1844) there is no mention of a Water-hen from Tristan d'Acunha being in the Museum; so that Leach probably did not buy it.
It is stated, in the above account of Gallinula nesiotis, "As far as can be judged from the specimen in the Gardens, the bird can flutter a little, but obviously uses its legs and not its wings as a mode of escape." The power
