THE BIRD BOOK 



219. Florida Gallinule. Gallinula galeata. 



Range — Temperate North America, from New 

 England, Manitoba and California, soutliward. 



A grayish colored bird of similar size to the 

 last (13 inches long), with flanks streaked with 

 white, and with the bill and crown plate reddish. 

 They nest in 



colonies in ^■-■r'_S-i/^r^ - 



marshes and - ^-^^ * 



swamps, build- ■'■ 1" , "T 

 ing their nests 



like those oi . ■ ,^ 



t h e P u r p 1 < ' 

 Gallinule. The 

 i\ggs, too, are 

 similar, but 

 larger and 

 slightly duller. 

 Size 1.75x1.20. 

 Data. — Monte- 

 zuma marshes, Florida, June 6, 1894. Eleven 

 eggs. Nest of dead fiaggs, floating in two feet of 

 water. Collector, Robert Warwick. 



Pale buff. 







[220.] European Coot. Fulica atra. 



A European species very similar to the next, 

 and only casually found in Greenland. Nesting 

 the same as our species. 



"221. Coot. Fulica aviericana. 



Orayi-sli. 



Range. — Whole of temperate North America, 

 from the southern parts of the British Provinces, 

 southward; very common in suitable localities 

 throughout its range. 



The Coot bears some resemblance to the 

 Florida Gallinule, but is somewhat larger, 

 its bill is white with a blackish band about 

 the middle, and each toe has a scalloped 

 web. They inhabit the same marshes and 

 sloughs that are used by the Rails and Gal- 

 linules as nesting places, and they have the 

 same retiring habits, skulking through the 

 grass to avoid observation, rather than fly- 

 ing. Their nests are either floating piles 

 of decayed vegetation, or are built of dead 

 rushes in clumps of rushes on the banks. 

 They generally build in large colonies. The 

 eggs number from six to sixteen and have 



a grayish ground color, finely specked all over the surface with blackish. Siz^ 

 1.80x1.30. 



136 



