344 BULLETIN 135^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



lightly and gracefully over them. The purple gallinule not infrequentlj' alights 

 on ships at sea. While at the Island of Galveston, on the 26th of April, I was 

 offered several live individuals by the officers of the Boston frigate, which they 

 had caught on board. My friend John Bachman once received three specinaens 

 tliat had been caught 300 miles from land, one of them having come through the 

 cabin window. 



P. H. Gosse (1847) has drawn a good word picture of this bird, 

 which he calls the sultana, as he has seen it in Jamaica, as follows: 



I was struck with the remarkable elegance of one that I saw by the roadside, 

 about midway between Savanna le Mar and Bluefields. It was at one of those 

 pieces of dark water called blueholes, reputed to be unfathomable. The surface 

 was covered with the leaves and tangled stems of various water plants, and on 

 these the sultana was walking, supi)orted by its breadth of foot; so that the leaves 

 on which it trod sank only an inch or two, notwithstanding that the bird, accord- 

 ing to its usual manner, moved with great deliberation, frequently standing still, 

 and looking leisurely on either side. As it walked over to where the water was 

 less encumbered, it became more immersed, until it seemed to be swimming, yet 

 even then, from the motion of its legs, it was evidently walking, either on the 

 bottom, or on the yielding plants. At the margin of the pool, it stood some 

 time in a dark nook overhung by bushes, where its green and purple hues were 

 finely thrown out by the dark background. I could not help thinking what a 

 beautiful addition it would make to an ornamental water in an English park; 

 and the more so, because its confiding tameness allows of approach svifficiently 

 near to admire its brilliancy. Nor are its motions void of elegance; the constant 

 jerking of its pied tail is perhaps rather singular than admirable, but the bridling 

 of its curved and lengthened neck, and the lifting of its feet are certainly graceful. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Southern United States, islands of the Caribbean Sea, 

 Central and South America; casual in southern Canada. 



Breeding range. — North to Texas (Harris and Orange Counties); 

 Louisiana (Cameron County, Avery Island, and Houma) ; probably 

 Mississippi (Natchez); probably Alabama (Chuckvee Bay, Baldwin 

 County); Florida (Tallahassee and Oldtown); and South CaroUna 

 (Yemassee, and probably Charleston). East to South Carolina 

 (Yemassee, Frogmore, and probably Charleston) ; Georgia (probably 

 Okefinokee Swamp and Savannah); Florida (Oklawaha River, Lake 

 Harris, Lake Okeechobee, and Caloosahatcliie River); Cuba (Isle of 

 Pines) ; Haiti; formerly Porto Rico; the Lesser Antilles (Guadeloupe, 

 Dominica, Santa Lucia, Carriacou, Grenada, Tobago, and. Trinidad); 

 British Guiana (Georgetown) ; French Guiana (Cayenne) ; Brazil 

 (Pernambuco, Baliia, Espiritu Santo, Cantagallo, and San Paulo); 

 and Argentina (Barracas el Sud). South to Argentina (Barracas al 

 Sud and Santiago del Estero) ; western Brazil (Caicara) ; and Colombia 

 (Gorgona Island). West to Colombia (Gorgona Island, Medellin, 

 and Lake of Peten); Colima (Rio de Coahua3^ana) ; Tepic (probably 



