330 THE BIRDS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 



food from our common Waterhen, but is perhaps 

 more strictly an inhabitant of swampy reed-jungle, 

 and somewhat less terrestrial than that bird ; its 

 nests present no difference in materials and structure, 

 and its eggs only differ in size from those of the 

 Waterhen. The boatmen who steered my punt 

 through the reeds of the great marshes of Eastern 

 Sicily and the lagoons of Sardinia told me that 

 these Gallinules destroy great numbers of the eggs 

 and young of all sorts of Wildfowd — a statement that 

 I can very well believe, as I found that those that I 

 have kept in confinement at Lilford would always 

 attack, kill, and devour any bird that they could 

 master, and on one occasion made an onslaught upon 

 a Laughing Kingfisher in our aviary ; in this instance, 

 however, they met their match, and, as far as I can 

 ascertain, never repeated the attack. The beak of 

 this bird is a most formidable weapon, and its strong 

 legs and long toes enable it not only to climb wdth 

 great ease " hand over hand " fashion, up the reed- 

 stems, but also to clutch and hold fast any living 

 victim whilst they put an end to its struggles with 

 their beaks ; my birds at Lilford generally fed in 

 this way, on morsels of bread, meat, mice, snails, &c. 

 The usual cry of the Purple Gallinule is a very harsh 

 and resonant trumpeting note, and at nightfall in 

 Sicily they make a sometimes almost deafening 

 clamour. In captivity this bird becomes very tame ; 

 my Gallinules nested more than once in the aviary 

 and laid several eggs, but would never sit steadily, so 

 that no young birds w^cre hatched. The plumage is 

 splendid in the sunlight, and were it not for their 

 pugnacity these birds would be a fine ornament to 

 our ponds. 



