Obdeb Paludicol^. 13 



about five miles southeast of Lawrence. The specimen is mounted in the fine 

 collection under his charge. It is the first bird to my knowledge captured, or 

 seen in the State; but this is not strange, as the birds inhabit the marshy grounds, 

 and at the least alarm, run, skulk and hide in the reeds or grass, and it is next 

 to impossible to force them to take wing. Therefore seldom seen even where 

 known to be common. I enter the bird as summer resident, because they have 

 been found both north and south of us, and are known to breed within their 

 geographical range. Nest on the ground. The following description is from 

 Vol. 1, North American Water Birds: "Its nest resembles the ordinary loosely 

 constructed one of this family." * * * "Three eggs in the Smithsonian Col- 

 lection (No. 7057), from Winnebago, in northern Illinois, measure respectively 

 1.08 inches by .85, 1.12 by .82, 1.12 by .80. They are of oval shape, one end 

 slightly more tapering than the other. Their ground-color is a very deep buff, 

 and one set of markings, which are almost entirely confined to the larger end, 

 consists of blotches of pale diluted purplish brown; these are overlain by a dense 

 sprinkling of fine dottings of rusty brown." Note. — October 1st, Professor 

 Dyche captured on the Wakarusa bottom lands, two and a half miles south of 

 Lawrence, another of the little birds, a female, and he thinks a youncfhixA. The 

 lucky finds were both caught by his dog. 



Subgenus CRECISCUS Cabanis. 



B. 556. R. 576. C. 681. G. 270. U. 216. 



66. Porzana jamaicensis (Gmel.). Black Rail. Summer resident; rare. Arrive 

 about the first of April. Begin laying about the middle of May. Nest in a de- 

 pression on marshy ground, composed of grass blades; in form, round and deep. 

 Eggs, six to ten; 1.02x.80; creamy white, thickly sprinkled with small dots of 

 reddish brown; in form, oval. Two eggs — the remains of a set of eight col- 

 lected near Manhattan, and kindly loaned me for examination by Dr. C. P. 

 Blachly — measure 1.08x.75, 1.05x.78. 



Subfamily GALLINULIN>^. Gallinules. 

 Genus GrALLINULA Bkisson. 



B. 660. R. 679. C. 684. G. . U. 219. 



67. Gallinula galeata (Light.). Florida Gallinule. Prof. F. H. Snow writes me, 

 under date of October 20th, 1885, that since the publication of his " Birds of Kan- 

 sas," in 1875, he has personally obtained in the State two specimens of Gallinula 

 galeata. The first was captured by himself, June 14th, 1878, on the Hackberry, 

 in Gove county; the second by a friend in the vicinity of Lawrence. The bird 

 was entered in his catalogue on the authority of Prof. Baird; and at the time of 

 the publication of my catalogue in 1883, they were known to breed both north 

 and south of the State, and therefore safe to enter as a Kansas bird; but my list 

 only embraced the birds that came under my own observation, and that of others 

 as reported to me. From the fact that the birds nest within their geographical 

 range, and its capture so late in June, I now enter it as a rare summer resident. 

 I have found the birds nesting in Wisconsin as early as the middle of May. Nest 

 in rushes and reeds growing in shallow water, or on swampy lands; build on the 

 tops of old broken-down stalks, and the nests are coraposed of the same ma- 

 terial, weeds, and grasses — also the leaves of the cat-tail flag, when growing in 



