182 Miller, The Florida Gallinule in Philadelphia Co. [April 



rare transient. In Warren's 'Birds of Pennsylvania' (2d revised 

 edition, page 73), we learn that it was a "regular, but rather rare 

 spring and fall migrant," and that it "probably breeds." In 

 Stone's 'Birds of Eastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey' it is listed 

 (page 32) as a "rare or irregular transient about Philadelphia," and 

 on page 68 as a "regular transient but not very common." There 

 is apparently nothing further on record regarding the bird's status 

 in the Delaware Valley. There are, however, some additional 

 records of birds shot, but all of these were evidently migrants and 

 in no sense modify the statement made above. 



The marsh where the Florida Gallinule was first found nesting 

 in the Delaware Valley, is located at Port Richmond, in Philadelphia 

 County, in the northeastern part of the city, less than five miles 

 from the city hall, and is the largest marsh in that part of the country. 

 It comprised about twenty acres when I first visited it, but it has 

 since been reduced to about one third of that size. It lies between 

 two streets (which are dirt-covered sewers used only by pedestrians) 

 and the bank of the Delaware River, and has been divided into 

 three parts by the intersecting of two streets and a canal. The 

 bank carries a railroad, which is used daily by a noisy shifting engine, 

 and a large dump on the west is worked daily, and is the chief cause 

 of the rapid decrease in the size of the marsh. 



In the immediate vicinity of the marsh there are several large 

 manufacturing plants. This marsh is now covered with a dense 

 growth of cattails growing in water from one to four feet deep; 

 fonnerly it contained large patches of calamus, but the struggle for 

 existence of this reed ceased in 1906, when the water killed it. 

 Some spatterdocks and Peltondria still grow along the edges and 

 duckweeds cover the water. The marsh is about six feet below 

 the surface of the streets, and is drained by several sluices, the water 

 rising and falling with the tide in the Delaware River, and is thus 

 always quite fresh. 



My acquaintance with the Florida Gallinule began in this marsh 

 on June 1, 1904, when, while hunting for Least Bittern's nests, I 

 suddenly flushed a bird from a patch of reeds. My first nest was 

 found on June 21, 1904, and the second (of the same pair) on July 1 ; 

 both sets consisted of ten eggs. This was probably the only pair 

 inhabiting the marsh in 1904, but as I did not thoroughly explore it, 

 not then being inured to marsh exploration, it is impossible for me 



