Grey-headed Swamphen
Porphyrio poliocephalus (Latham, 1801)
Photo © By Dr. Raju Kasambe - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=54503015
STATUS
Sri Lanka, India to southern China and northern Thailand, Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Polytypic.
OVERVIEW
Species not admitted nationally (BOU 1971). The ‘Purple Swamphen’ complex was split into six species by the IOC in July 2015, three of which could possibly reach Britain. The other two being the Western Swamphen P. porphyrio and African Swamphen P. madagascariensis.
NOT PROVEN
0). 1892 Sussex Westbrooke, near Horsham, shot, 4th August.
(J. Whitaker, Zoologist 1893: 105; E. J. B. Meade-Waldo, Zoologist 1893: 147-148; Lord Lilford, Zoologist 1893: 192; J. H. Gurney, jun., Zoologist 1893: 192).
[Walpole-Bond, 1938].
History J. Whitaker of Rainworth, Notts. (1893) in The Zoologist, 3rd series, Vol. XVII. p. 105, says: 'On the 5th August last Mr. Sandeman's coachman brought a specimen of this Waterhen to Richardson, the bird-stuffer at Horsham, to be preserved. He had shot it at Westbrooke, near Warnham (which is only a short distance from Horsham), the previous day. The plumage was in perfect order, and the bird, to all appearance, a purely wild one.'
E. J. B. Meade-Waldo of Rope Hill, Lymington (1893) in The Zoologist, 3rd series, Vol. XVII. pp. 147-148, says: 'Without wishing in any way to discredit the likelihood of the Purple Gallinules mentioned as having been killed in Norfolk and Sussex being purely wild birds, it may be interesting to readers of The Zoologist to know that prior to 1881 some fourteen or fifteen examples of both the Blue-backed and Green-backed species went away, at different times, from a wired in piece of water at our home in Kent. About thirteen acres were wired in, and they had abundance of covert and a running stream; but they were the very worst birds possible to keep at home, climbing over anything, and always keeping out of sight; they were pinioned, or rather had their wings cut, and on moulting would of course have recovered their power of flight, They are, I fancy, very long-lived birds, as all water-fowl are.'
Lord Lilford of Lilford Hall, Oundle (1893) in The Zoologist, 3rd series, Vol. XVII. p. 192, says: 'With reference to the two occurrences of Purple Gallinule (? species), recorded by Mr. J. Whitaker (Zool., p. 105), it is perhaps well that I should mention that two healthy specimens of the Green-backed Purple Gallinule, Porphyrio smaragdonotus, escaped hence, either towards the end of 1890 or early in 1891. I have, within the last few days, heard that a "Purple Waterhen" was observed several times in a garden near Peterborough during the severe weather of 1891-92, and am naturally disposed to think that it was, in all probability, one of my escaped birds. I may add that in forty years' experience of collecting living birds, very few of the European Purple Gallinule, P. caeruleus, have ever been offered to me for sale, whilst, on the other hand, I have very frequent offers of P. smaragdonotus, of which species many are annually shipped for Antwerp from Egypt; and P. melanotus of Australia, P. poliocephalus and P. calvus of Asia, and P. madagascariensis of Africa, are not uncommonly to be found in the hands of dealers in live birds in this country and on the Continent.'
J. H. Gurney, jun., of Norwich (1893) in The Zoologist, 3rd series, Vol. XVII. p. 192, says: 'You ask (p. 105) for further information as to the two Purple Gallinules lately shot in Norfolk and Sussex. I have seen the one shot at Stoke Ferry, near Downham Market, and it is the Grey-headed species of India, Porphyrio poliocephalus, Latham. Mr. J. Sandeman, of Westbrook, in answer to my enquiry, tells me that the Sussex bird is also of the Indian species. Probably they had escaped, but the Norfolk one shows no signs of confinement, excepting that it has lost half of its tail. Its feet are smooth and clean beneath, and the nails perfect. The other was killed on a lawn by Mr. Sandeman's gardener, which is certainly suggestive of a prisoner escaped! I learn from Lord Lilford that he has kept many examples of P. poliocephalus, but has never lost one.'
[The birds which escaped from Lord Lilford's aviaries were Porphyrio smaragdonotus, as mentioned in our last number (p. 147). But several of the Grey-headed species (P. poliocephalus) have been kept in a state of semi-domestication by Mr. Meade Waldo in Kent, and by Mr. Meinertzhagen, in Hants., and the one killed in Sussex may have been one of these. We have no faith in the so-called "British-killed Purple Gallinules", and believe that everyone of these birds which has been shot or caught in a state of liberty must at some time or another have previously made its escape from a state of semi-domestication amongst ornamental waterfowl. The argument that such birds show no traces of confinement is of no value whatever, for under the conditions in which ornamental waterfowl are usually kept there is no more wear and tear than truly wild birds - Ed.]
Not accepted locally as the record was placed in square brackets (Walpole-Bond 1938 (3): 336) .
0). 1892 Norfolk Stoke Ferry, shot, November.
(J. Whitaker, Zoologist 1893: 105; Lord Lilford, Zoologist 1893: 192; J. H. Gurney, jun., Zoologist 1893: 192).
History J. Whitaker of Rainworth, Notts. (1893) in The Zoologist, 3rd series, Vol. XVII. p. 105, under 'Purple Gallinule in Norfolk,' says: 'Mr. Everard's keeper shot one of these birds at Stone [Stoke] Ferry, near Market Downham, in November last. The plumage was in a perfect state, and the bird was to all appearances a genuine wild one. I know many will say that such birds are kept for ornament, and are escaped specimens; but birds of this kind, being expensive, are usually pinioned, and as I fancy they have not bred in confinement (at least I have never heard of their doing so), this to me is a great deal in favour of their being genuine wild birds. The place where the one referred to was shot is just the one a strange bird would choose to pitch into, there being over a thousand acres of swamp, and the covert is thick and high.' [Query species. - Ed.]
Lord Lilford of Lilford Hall, Oundle (1893) in The Zoologist, 3rd series, Vol. XVII. p. 192, says: 'With reference to the two occurrences of Purple Gallinule (? species), recorded by Mr. J. Whitaker (Zool., p. 105), it is perhaps well that I should mention that two healthy specimens of the Green-backed Purple Gallinule, Porphyrio smaragdonotus, escaped hence, either towards the end of 1890 or early in 1891. I have, within the last few days, heard that a "Purple Waterhen" was observed several times in a garden near Peterborough during the severe weather of 1891-92, and am naturally disposed to think that it was, in all probability, one of my escaped birds. I may add that in forty years' experience of collecting living birds, very few of the European Purple Gallinule, P. caeruleus, have ever been offered to me for sale, whilst, on the other hand, I have very frequent offers of P. smaragdonotus, of which species many are annually shipped for Antwerp from Egypt; and P. melanotusof Australia, P. poliocephalus and P. calvus of Asia, and P. madagascariens is of Africa, are not uncommonly to be found in the hands of dealers in live birds in this country and on the Continent.'
J. H. Gurney, jun., of Norwich (1893) in The Zoologist, 3rd series, Vol. XVII. p. 192, says: 'You ask (p. 105) for further information as to the two Purple Gallinules lately shot in Norfolk and Sussex. I have seen the one shot at Stoke Ferry, near Downham Market, and it is the Grey-headed species of India, Porphyrio poliocephalus, Latham. Mr. J. Sandeman, of Westbrook, in answer to my enquiry, tells me that the Sussex bird is also of the Indian species. Probably they had escaped, but the Norfolk one shows no signs of confinement, excepting that it has lost half of its tail. Its feet are smooth and clean beneath, and the nails perfect. The other was killed on a lawn by Mr. Sandeman's gardener, which is certainly suggestive of a prisoner escaped! I learn from Lord Lilford that he has kept many examples of P. poliocephalus, but has never lost one.'
[The birds which escaped from Lord Lilford's aviaries were Porphyrio smaragdonotus, as mentioned in our last number (p. 147). But several of the Grey-headed species (P. poliocephalus) have been kept in a state of semi-domestication by Mr. Meade Waldo in Kent, and by Mr. Meinertzhagen, in Hants., and the one killed in Sussex may have been one of these. We have no faith in the so-called "British-killed Purple Gallinules", and believe that everyone of these birds which has been shot or caught in a state of liberty must at some time or another have previously made its escape from a state of semi-domestication amongst ornamental waterfowl. The argument that such birds show no traces of confinement is of no value whatever, for under the conditions in which ornamental waterfowl are usually kept there is no more wear and tear than truly wild birds - Ed.]
0). 1899 Hampshire Basing, shot, 12th October.
(R. Bowdler Sharpe, Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club 13: 17-18).
History R. Bowdler Sharpe, Editor (1902) in the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club, Vol. XIII. pp. 17-18, at the 90th Meeting of the Club held on 22nd October 1902 at the Restaurant Frascati, London, says: 'Dr. Sclater exhibited a mounted specimen of the Indian Porphyrio (Porphyrio poliocephalus) killed in Hampshire. The bird had been shot by Mr. Henry Smallbone, of Hale Farm, Basing, on October 12th, 1899, in a meadow immediately adjoining his farm, which was situated on the Lyde River, a tributary of the Loddon. It was set up by Mr. Nevill, of Dean Gate, near Overton. There could be no doubt of these facts, as Mr. Smallbone was well known to Mr. Sclater, and a person undoubted veracity. It was, of course, possible that the specimen had escaped from confinement, but it was also, in Mr. Sclater's opinion, quite as likely that it might have wandered to the British Islands, across Central Europe, this species of Porphyrio being known to occur as far west as the Caucasus (see Sclater, P. Z. S., 1891, p. 47), and Rails of all sorts being notoriously erratic. This was believed to be the first record of the occurrence of this Porphyrio in the British Islands, though P. caeruleus of Southern Europe and P. smaragdonotus of Egypt and E. Africa have already occurred here. It was pointed out by Mr. Rothschild and others that Porphyrio poliocephalus was one of the commonest species of Purple Gallinule brought to this country.'
