128 



THE OSPREY. 



YOUNG OSPREYS AT GARDINER'S ISLAND. 



Coots in their nidification, for many of the latter have 

 their full complements of eggs before the Gallinules 

 have finished their nests. 



The nest of the Florida Gallinule is commonly 

 situated among the flags about midway between the 

 open water and the dry edges of the swamp. It is 

 usually found farther out in the flags than the ma- 

 jority of nests of the King Rails, which it resembles 

 more closely than it does the habitations of the 

 Coots. More nests of the Coots than of the Gallinule 

 are found in the shallow water, and I learned to look 

 for the habitations of the Gallinules in the middle 

 third of the growth of flags encircling the open area 



tuft of flags. The most of the nests I have exam- 

 ined averaged between eight and nine inches 

 above the surface of the water in which the 

 grass tufts were growing, to the top of the nests, 

 and usually the base of the nest was in the 

 water. 



The eggs of the Gallinule and the King Rail 

 are frequently described in such a way that the 

 novice is unable to distinguish between them. A 

 series of the two species placed side by side, 

 however, shows such a marked difference that 

 there is no liability of confusion to the discrim- 

 inating observer. There is a marked reddish 

 tinge or a rusty hue to the ground color of the 

 eggs of the Gallinule that will readily serve to 

 identify them from the eggs of the Rail, with 

 their lighter, dingy-cream ground. The first 

 impression of the eggs of the Gallinule is not of 

 cream ground, but a dark clay with a rusty tinge. 

 The markings of the eggs of the Gallinule are a 

 rustier red, with more numerous finer dots of 

 color, and less larger shell marks of lilac and 

 lavender. 



In the use of their loud and numerous cries, 

 the Gallmules are quite unlike the Coots, which 

 are rather silent. The ordinary call of the Gal- 

 linule is something like the syllable " kra " re- 

 peated several times, and it is peculiar in its ventril- 

 oquial effect, for when the author may be many yards 

 away from the observer, the sound will seem to issue 

 from a point near at hand. Frequently when I have 

 been in the swamps with a companion, who was walk- 

 ing twenty or thirty feet from me, I have heard calls 

 which seemed to proceed from a point at his feet, and 

 on calling his attention to the vicinity of the author, he 

 would give his impression of the bird's position at 

 some point more distant, and perhaps in another 

 direction. Observers who are familiar with the mis- 

 leading effect of the notes of the Horned Lark can 

 appreciate something of the more misleading effect 

 of the cries of the Gallinules. They can also quack 



of water. The commonest site is the base of a tuft 



of flags, the lower part of the nest being made of g^ ^nuch like Ducks that the listener is generally mis- 

 coarse pieces of rushes piled into the tuft, and the taken in the author, though there is a deeper, more 

 lining being finer pieces of softer flag-stems. The guttural into- 

 nest generally stands about eight or nine inches high nation in the 

 in the tuft, and is eight inches across the top, being productions of 

 of about the same diameter for its entire height, or the Gallinules. 

 cylindrical in form; in this respect differing from the They have oth- 

 mound-like nest of the Coot. The cavity of the nest er cries not easy 

 is about six inches across and generally not more to describe, and 

 than two inches deep. The stems of the flags usually at any time of 

 left standing about the nest protect it for most of its day,and partic- 

 circumference, and sometimes the top is somewhat ularly as day 

 covered by the drooping of the tops of the stems, dawns and 

 though the latter feature is more characteristic of the night falls, the 

 homes of the King Rails. I do not recall any nests swamps arevo- 

 of the Gallinule that I have seen which might float cal with the 

 in case of inundation, for in most instances the ma- varied sounds 

 terial appears to be compacted into the base of the they utter. ^^p^^^, ^^^t- ^^ gardiners island 



