685. 
276. 
686. 
676 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — ALECTORIDES —RALLIFORMES. 
high, shorter than head, the nostrils near iggerniddle, oval. Toes without lateral margins. 
Plumage beautiful with rich blue, ete. 
I. marti/nica. (Of Martinique.) PurRPLE GALLINULE. Adult @ 9: Head, neck, and 
under parts beautiful purplish-blue, blackening on the belly, the sides and lining of wings 
bluish-green, the crissum white. Above, olivaceous-green, the cervix and wing-coverts tinted 
with blue. Quills and tail-feathers blackish, glossed on the outer webs with greenish. 
Frontal shield blue; bill carmine, tipped with yellow; legs yellow. The frontal shield is 
obovate, with a point behind. Young with the head, neck, and lower back brownish, the 
under parts mostly white, mixed with ochrey. Length 10.00-12.00; extent about 22.00; 
wing 6.50-7.00; tail 2.50-3.00; bill from gape about 1.25 ; tarsus 
about 2.25; middle toe and claw about 3.00. S. Atlantic and Gulf 
States, N. casually to New England, etc.; resident in the South. 
Also inhabits much of C. and 8. Am., and W. I. 
J 
64. Subfamily FULICIN/AE: Coots. 
Bill and frontal plate much asin the Gallinules. Body depressed ; 
the under plumage thick and duck-like, to resist water. Feet 
highly natatorial ; toes, including the hinder, lobate, being furnished 
with large semicircular membranous flaps. The Coots are emi- 
nently aquatic birds, swimming with ease, by means of their lobate 
feet, like phalaropes and grebes ; but this ability results from very 
slight modification of a structure shared by the Rails and Gallinules. 
There are about ten species, of both hemispheres, distinguished, 
among other characters, by the size and shape of the frontal shield. 
That, for instance, figured (fig. 468) is of an exotie species, much 
larger than that of Fulica americana, and differently shaped. One 
FIG. 468.— Frontal shield of Species is remarkable for having the forehead singularly carun- 
a species of coot. culate; the others closely resemble our common species. 
FULICA. (Lat. fulica, or fulix, a coot, from the sooty color; fuligo, soot.) Character 
essentially as above. Tarsi shorter than middle toe, stout, very broadly scutellate. Nostrils 
linear, in a broad fossa, towards middle of bill. Tibize bare below. Wings moderate, rounded, 
the 2d and 3d quills usually longest. Tail very short, 12-feathered. Plumage dark slaty 
color ; sexes alike. 
F. america/na. AMERICAN Coot. WHITE-BILLED Mup-HEN. Crow Ducx. Dark 
slate-color, paler or grayish below, blackening on the head and neck, tinged with olive on the 
back. Crissum, whole edge of wing, and tips of secondaries, white. Quills dusky, the outer 
edge of the first primary white. Tail blackish. Bill white or flesh-color, marked with 
reddish-black near the end and at base of frontal plate; feet dull olivaceous or livid yellowish- 
green; iris carmine; claws black. Young similar, paler and duller. Length 14.00-16.00 ; 
extent 23.00-27.00; wing 7.00-8.00; tail 2.00; bill from the gape 1.25-1.50; tarsus about 
9.00; middle toe and claw about 3.00. The frontal plate is much smaller in this than in some 
other species, in which it covers all the forehead. Entire temperate N. Am., even to Alaska 
and sometimes Greenland ; Mexico, Cent. Am. and W.I.; abundant, and breeds throughout 
its range; migratory northerly ; resident in the South. Inhabits during the breeding season, 
and mostly, reedy sloughs, pools, and sluggish streams, seeking safety in concealment rather 
than by flight. Nesting most like that of grebes; a hollowed heap of bits of dead reeds, 
just out of the water, sometimes ‘‘ floating” in the sense that the mass of broken-down reeds 
upon which it rests lies on the water. Eggs about a dozen, 1.75 to 2.00 long by 1.20 to 1.35 
broad, shaped like an average hen’s egg, clear clay-color, uniformly and minutely dotted with 
