34 



when completed being often lined with fine dried grasses or the 

 finer leaves of sedges. They are about a foot in diameter, some 

 eight or ten inches high, with a finely-formed depression in 

 the center, and often have a sort of inclined plane for entering 

 the nest on one side. The color of the eggs is such as to be 

 almost indiscernible from that of the nest at a distance. 



One of the next most common birds in nidification is the com- 

 mon, or Florida gallinule, Gallinula galeata ; the nests of which are 

 almost precisely like those of its near relative, the coot, except 

 that they contain more of fine material, consequently are more 

 compactly built and better edged up. They are also placed 

 farther in from the lake, and more in the seclusion of grassy 

 marshes and thick rush-beds of the shallow channels. The eggs, 

 from eight to fourteen, about the same in number as those of the 

 coot, are perceptibly smaller, and more tinged with a warm 

 brown in the ground color ; the marking being of more irregular, 

 larger, and lighter, or reddish brown, spots, much of it resemb- 

 ling the color of iron rust. The gallinule is still shyer than the 

 coot in leaving its nest, and its voice bears quite a resemblance to 

 that of the guinea-fowl much of the time, to which it adds a 

 peculiar note, something like a musical shake on a reed instru- 

 ment. 



The eggs of both the above species are laid late in May or 

 early in June, and the young are black in the down ; the coots 

 having a little light rust-colored down about the head. Both 

 leave the nest as soon as they are hatched. 



Perhaps the next most common water bird in these parts in the 

 breeding season is the red-headed duck, Fuligula ferina var. 

 americana. Along the deeper channels, flocks of males may be 

 seen feeding and sporting at their leisure, interspersed with an 

 occasional female, or a blue-bill. The " squawk " of this species is 

 quite frequent, and characteristic; and the "meow" of the male is 

 precisely like that of a vigorous full-grown cat. A graceful, 

 stately bird it is as it rides upon the waters ; and as a diver after 

 its food, it is surpassed by few of its kind. The female, which, 

 like the rest of her kind, bears the duties of nidification alone, 



