NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 363 



is conspicuous only at short range and the white under tail coverts are 

 present in all three species. 



Mr. Brewster (1891) heard what he thought was the wooing note 

 of the male, uttered while in active pursuit of the female; it sounded 

 like ^' ticket-ticlcet-ticket-ticket (six to eight repetitions each time)." 

 He also writes: 



The calls of these gallinules were so varied and complex that it seems hopeless 

 to attempt a full description of them. I certainly know of no other bird which 

 utters so many different sounds. Sometimes they gave four or five loud harsh 

 screams, very like those of a hen in the clutches of a hawk, only slower and at 

 longer intervals; sometimes a series of sounds closely resembling those made bj' 

 a brooding hen when disturbed, but louder and sharper. Then would succeed a 

 number of querulous, complaining cries, intermingled with subdued clucking. 

 Again I heard something which sounded like this: "kr-r-r-r-r, kruc-kruc, krar-r; kh- 

 kh-kh-kh-kea-kea," delivered rapidly and falling in pitch toward the end. Shorter 

 notes were a single, abrubt, explosive kup, very like the cry given by a startled frog 

 just as he jumps into the water, and a low "kloc-kloc or kloc-kloc-kloc." Speak- 

 ing generally, the notes were all loud, harsh, and discordant, and nearly all curi- 

 ously henlike. At intervals of perhaps half an hour during the greater part of 

 the day the two birds called to one another from various parts of the swamp, 

 evidently for the purpose of ascertaining each other's whereabouts. They were 

 occasionally answered by a pair in a neighboring swamp and these in turn by a 

 third pair further off. In the early morning and late afternoon their calls were 

 frequent and at times nearly incessant. They ceased almost entirely after night- 

 fall, for the Florida gallinule is apparently much less nocturnal than any of the 

 rails, if not so strictly diurnal as most of our birds. 



Fall. — ^The Florida gallinule is a summer resident only in the 

 northern portions of its range. Birds which breed in the Northern 

 and Central States migrate south in the fall to the southern tier of 

 States and perhaps farther. The species winters regularly as fai- 

 north as South Carolina and southern California, but even there it is 

 much less common than in summer. Its flesh is good to eat and it 

 is probably shot to some extent by gunnel's out after other game; 

 but it has never been considered much of a game bird. Doctor 

 Wetmore (1916) says that in Porto Rico it ranks as a game bird and 

 that its eggs are persistently hunted for food. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Southeastern Canada, the United States, islands of the 

 Caribbean Sea, and South and Central America. 



Breeding range. — North to California (San Francisco Bay and near 

 Sacramento) ; probably Arizona (Tucson) ; Nebraska (Omaha) ; Min- 

 nesota (Heron Lake and Minneapolis); Wisconsin (Madison, Milton, 

 and Kelley Brook) ; Michigan (Kalamazoo and Detroit) ; southern 

 Ontario (Hamilton, Toronto, Pictou, Kingston, and Ottawa) ; Quebec 

 (Montreal) ; Vermont (St. Albans) ; and Massachusetts (Belmont, 

 Provincctown, and Truro). East to Massachusetts (Cambridge and 

 Truro) ; New York (Long Island City) ; Pennsylvania (Philadelphia) ; 



