218 WADING BIRDS. 



being tipt with a darker tint, giving a waved appearance to those 

 parts. Throat and belly whitish : flanks and thighs dusky, mixed 

 with pale brown, the feathers furnished with two or three white 

 transverse lines, as on the back. Under tail-coverts pale rufous. 

 The young, for some time after hatching, as in the other species, are 

 covered with a black down. When fully grown, they are still 

 much smaller than the adults, have the bars about the head much 

 more distinctly marked ; the under parts darker and more clouded, 

 with a general reddish tint prevalent over the lower parts and the 

 skirting of the upper plumage ; there are also fewer white bars on 

 the tail and large feathers, and the black of the adult is yet only 

 chocolate-brown. But the most decisive mark is the absence of 

 most of the white on the secondaries, which is only indicated by 2 

 or 3 irregular spots on the first of them, and on the last of the 

 primaries. 



GALLINULES. (Gallinula, Lath.) 



In these birds, which closely resemble the Rails, the bill is shorter 

 than the head, much higher than wide, compressed, straight; both 

 mandibles furrowed, the upper covering the margins of the lower, 

 inclined at the point, the base spreading out into a naked space 

 advancing upon the forehead. Nostrils in the furrow of the bill, 

 medial, lateral, oblong, pervious, half closed by a turgid membrane. 

 Feet, a small naked space above the knee, anterior toes very long, 

 wholly divided, bordered by a narrow membrane : hind toe bearing 

 on the ground with several joints; nails acute and compressed. 

 Wings concave, rounded ; 1st primary shorter than the 5th; 2d and 

 3d longest. Tail short, and nearly covered. 



The two sexes nearly alike in plumage, the males merely a little 

 brighter colored, and with the frontal clypeus more extended. The 

 young differ from the adult, till the completion of the year ; and in- 

 dividuals vary much in size. The moult is annual. 



The Gallinules, or Water Hens, so called from their quaint resem- 

 blance to our common domestic fowls, associated by pairs or broods, 

 lead almost a nocturnal life, hiding themselves in the thick herbage 

 of the marshes, where they dwell by day, and disporting and feeding 

 towards evening, and in the early twilight. They reside near fresh 



