_White gallinule_, Voy. of Gov. Phillip to N.S.W., p. 273, cum tab.
(1789).
_Porphyrio stanleyi_ Rowley, Orn. Misc. I, p. 36, pl. IX (1875).
_Porphyrio melanotus_ (part.) Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. XXIII, p.
205 (1894).
_Porphyrio alba_ G. R. Gray, List Birds N.Z., &c., Ibis 1862, p. 214.
The first to point out the differences between the bird now in the
Liverpool Museum and the specimen in Vienna was Mr. Dawson Rowley. The
original description of the anonymous author of Phillip's Voyage is as
follows:--
"This beautiful bird greatly resembles the purple Gallinule in shape and
make, but is much superior in size, being as large as a dunghill fowl. The
length from end of bill to that of the claws is two feet three inches. The
bill is very stout, and the colour of it, the whole of the top of the head
and the irides red; the sides of the head round the eyes are reddish, very
thinly sprinkled with white feathers; the whole of the plumage is, without
exception, white. The legs the colour of the bill. This species is pretty
common on Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, and other places, and is a very
tame species. The other sex, supposed to be the male, is said to have some
blue on the wings."
Gray states under _Porphyrio alba_, in Ibis 1862, p. 214: "It is stated
that a similar kind was found on Lord Howe Island which was incapable of
flight. The wings of the male were beautifully mottled with blue."
Dr. H. O. Forbes, in the Bulletin of the Liverpool Museums, Vol. III, No.
2, pp. 62-68 (1901), gives an exhaustive account of Rowley's type, in which
he comes to the conclusion that the bird is not a _Porphyrio_ but a
_Notornis_, and that it is also probably a specimen of _Notornis alba_.
That it is a _Notornis_ I equally believe; but I think the length of the
wing-coverts in the type of _N. alba_, puts it out of the question that the
two birds could be the same. Moreover, the two original pictures of Phillip
and White show this difference of the wings very well. I have therefore
kept the two separate, and I feel sure if we had other specimens with exact
data we should find this a parallel case to that of _Nesonetta aucklandica_
of the Auckland Islands and _Anas chlorotis_ of New Zealand, and that
_Notornis alba_ of Norfolk Island was a still further degenerate form to
the already flightless _N. stanleyi_ of Lord Howe Island. Wing nine inches.