"THE FLORIDA GALLINULE. 
453 
“Ever on the lookout for any danger that may menace it, at the least 
noise it takes to flight and hides among the rushes. It is only when its place 
of retreat is inaccessible that flight is attempted, its movement in the air being 
heavy and not well sustained. Its voice is loud and strong but has in it nothing 
remarkable. Worms, molluscs, and the fruit of various kinds of aquatic 
plants are its food. It gathers seeds and carries them to its beak with its 
claws, and it also makes use of them in clinging to the rushes where the water 
is very deep” (Brewer). 
No. 203. 
FLORIDA  GALEINULE. 
A. O. U. No. 219. Gallinula galeata (Licht.). 
Description.—Adult: Frontal shield and bill bright red, the latter tipped 
with greenish yellow ; general plumage blackish slate; above heavily overlaid with 
olive-brown on back and scapulars ; edges of wings and lateral and posterior under 
tail-coverts white; afew flank feathers narrowly striped with white; feet greenish; 
tibie red. In winter specimens the frontal shield is narrower and the feathers 
of the belly more or less white-tipped. Jmmature: Similar to winter adult, but 
frontal shield reduced; bill brownish, yellow-tipped; feathers of lower parts more 
extensively white-tipped. Downy young: “Glossy black, the lower parts sooty 
along the median line; throat and cheeks interspersed with silvery-white hairs’’ 
(Ridgway). Length 13.75 (349.3); wing 6.50-7.25 (165.1-184.2); tail about 
2.75 (69.9) ; bill (to frontal shield’) 1.26 (32.) ; tarsus 2.20 (55.9) ; middle toe and 
claw 3.20 (81.3). 
Recognition Marks.—Little Hawk size; nearly uniform slaty coloration; 
bright red bill and frontal shield distinctive. 
Nest, a platform of dried reeds and grasses raised above surrounding mud 
and water of swamp. Eggs, 6-13, usually 8 or 9, buff or brownish buff, sparingly 
speckled and spotted or blotched with reddish brown, never (?) black. Av. size, 
eG) SS UPD (GUE, BS YON) 
General Range.—Temperate and tropical America from Canada to Brazil 
and Chili. 
Range in Ohio.—Not uncommon summer resident in the larger swamps 
throughout the state. 
GALLINULA—literally, little hen,—is the connecting link between 
ducks and chickens. On the one hand she swims freely and dives readily to 
escape a pursuer, moving upon the surface of the water rather daintily, nod- 
ding the head and perking the tail with each stroke, as if she were working 
her passage. When under the water the bird makes all speed to shelter, 
where, if sore pressed, she is said to cling to the submerged stems of water 
plants, protruding only the nostrils for air. On the other hand the water-hen 
moves nimbly through the reeds and walks upon the lily pads, or ranges the 
grass on the dry borders of the swamp. ‘The resemblance to the domestie 
