400 FLORIDA GALLINULE. 



also met with throughout the continent of Africa from east to west, and 

 from north to south. "We have examined specimens from Egypt, others 

 from Seiiegambia, and from the Cape of Good Hope. The size varies 

 much, even in specimens from the same country, but the G. cJdoropus 

 and ardosiaca have always the toes shorter than our American analogue. 

 In fact, even in the largest specimen examined by Lichtenstein, which 

 was from Caffraria, and measured fourteen and a half inches, the middle 

 toe without the nail was only twenty-six lines long : whilst in the Florida 

 specimens of the ordinary size of fourteen inches, the same toe mea- 

 sures at least thirty-four lines. The tarsus likewise, and the other toes, 

 are proportionally longer, and this forms the best discriminating mark. 

 Another might also be drawn from the frontal clypeus, but as this ex- 

 tends with age in the different species, it may be deceptive : in full 

 grown birds, however, it is proper to observe, that both the American 

 and Javan species differ from the common kind in having it much wider, 

 and differently shaped : in the American it extends still further back, 

 and is cut somewhat square behind, whilst the Javan has it exactly 

 rounded : in the European it is much less extended, narrow, and com- 

 paratively acute. In point of form, markings, proportions of the prima- 

 ries, and every other particular we could think of, we have been unable 

 to find any distinction, however trifling, between the three species. 



The genus Gallinule, restrained within its just limits,* is a small group 

 composed of but five or six species spread over all the warm and tem- 

 perate climates of the globe, and exceedingly similar in form and colors : 

 only one, that figured by Wilson, assumes the brilliant vesture of its 

 near relations the Porphyriones, for which reason some authors have 

 considered it as one of them. Together with the Rails, tlie Coots, and 

 some others it forms the natural family Maorodactyli [Rallidce), and is 

 more aquatic in its habits than many web-footed birds. Unlike the 

 Coots, however, the Gallinules dislike salt or brackish water, and con- 

 fine themselves to fresh, and to rivers and streams especially, and they 

 are solitary, or at most the hen is seen with her family, like the Galli- 

 naceous birds of that sex. Being chiefly nocturnal, the Gallinules hide 

 carefully by day among reeds and other aquatic plants ; and even in a 

 state of captivity they are so remarkable for this habit, that some which 

 I kept in a yard would take advantage of every liiding-place to escape 

 the eye of man. It was only at the approach of night tliat they would 

 willingly display on the water their graceful evolutions, swimming in 

 circles, and often striking the water with their tails. From time to time 

 they would rest awhile, placing their necks on the reeds or large leaves 

 of aquatic plants. 



* The greater part of authors, and among them Latham and Temrainct, impro- 

 perly unite the Short-billed Rails with them. 



