THE BIRD BOOK 



219- Florida Gallinule. Gallinula galeata. 



Range — Temperate North America, from New 

 England, Manitoba and California, southward. 



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 . _^ 



marshes and 

 swamps, build- 

 ing their nests 

 like those of 

 the Purple 

 Gallinule. The 

 eggs, 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 flaggs, floating in two feet of 

 water. Collector, Robert Warwick. 



Pale buff. 



^ 



!)! 



[220.] European Coot. Falica atra. 



A European species very similar to the next, 

 and only casually found in Greenland. Nesting 

 the same as our species. 



Flo 



rida Gallinule. 

 Coot. 



a grayish 

 1.80x1.30 



Grayis 

 ground 



color, 



221. Coot. Fulica americana. 



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 

 ^L web. They inhabit the same marshes and 

 J , sloughs that are used by the Rails and Gal- 

 j 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 

 finely specked all over the surface with blackish. Size 



136 



