FAMILY RALLIDAE 361 



Immature, head, neck, sides, and tibia buffy brown; back, rump, 

 and tail dull brown ; wings greenish blue, washed with brown ; throat, 

 breast, abdomen, and under tail coverts white. 



Downy young, above black, underneath brownish black; crown, 

 sides of head from bill to back of eyes, and throat with somewhat 

 elongated filaments of very pale bluish white. 



Iris brown ; frontal shield pale bluish white to dull grayish blue ; 

 bill red, tipped with greenish yellow to yellow ; tarsus and toes light 

 greenish yellow ; claws brownish. 



Measurements. — Males (6 from Panama and northern Colombia), 

 wing 178-188 (181.8), tail 65.8-73.7 (69.2), culmen from base of 

 frontal shield 30.0-32.8 (31.5), tarsus 57.6-67.0 (61.7) mm. 



Females (5 from Panama and northern Colombia), wing 166-172 

 (168.2), tail 56.8-63.3 (60.8), culmen from base of frontal shield 

 27.2-30.7 (29.0), tarsus 59.0-63.6 (60.1) mm. 



Resident. Locally common along lowland rivers, in the backwaters 

 of Gatun and Madden Lakes, and in fresh-water marshes elsewhere. 



There is no record for the Pacific slope from western Chiriqui east 

 through Veraguas, Code, and the western sector of the Province of 

 Panama to the Canal Zone. 



These handsomely colored gallinules are found amid the floating 

 water planis that border the courses of lowland streams and in 

 fresh-water marsh areas in general. The formation of Gatun Lake 

 has greatly expanded their habitat in the central area of the Canal 

 Zone and is certain to have brought increase in their numbers in this 

 area. 



These gallinules are seen during travel in small boats, sometimes as 

 they walk over the aquatic vegetation, but more commonly when 

 they flush from scanty cover to fly a few meters with cackling calls 

 and quickly beating wings. The main impression of color on such 

 occasions is of white from the expanded under tail coverts and of 

 yellow from the dangling legs and feet. When they rise 2 to 3 meters 

 in the air to fly directly and rapidly in more sustained flight, the 

 legs and feet are raised to the line of axis of the body. At times 

 they are seen swimming, but they appear on open stretches of water 

 far less frequently than the common gallinule. 



In feeding, in addition to working through the water plants, they 

 climb about in trees, particularly those that grow in water, where 

 wet forests with dense branches stand partly flooded along the streams. 

 In such activities they often go up to 20 meters above the surface. 



