General Notes. 



109 



lonornis martinica in Arizona. — About October 20, 1887, ^ Chinaman 

 caught a female Purple Gallinule in his vegetable garden on the Santa 

 Cruz bottom opposite Tucson. He gave it to a Mexican bov from whom 

 I purchased it ten days later. The bird was in good plumage, but its 

 wings and tail were somewhat cage-worn. Length, 11.50 inches; extent, 

 21 ; wing, 6. So; tail, 2.72; tarsus, 2.25. This, so far as I can learn, is the 

 first of its kind ever taken in Arizona. — Herbert Brown, Tucson, Ari- 

 zona. 



Habits of the Purple Gallinule {Fononiis marfinica) .—WhWc spending 

 the spring and summer of 1887 at Yemassee, S. C, I found the Purple 

 Gallinule to be tiie most common and characteristic of the birds breeding 

 there. The locality where I found them was an old rice plantation of 

 about six or seven hundred acres. This abandoned rice plantation is 

 used as a reservoir, or, in local parlance, a 'backwater.' It is kept filled 

 with water, to flow the rice of adjoining fields, and is usually covered 

 with water to the depth of three to four leet. The whole 'backwater' is 

 overgrown with rushes, the broad-leafed pond liIy(iV)v«^^(^rt odorata) and 

 the Nelumbium {^Cyamus fiavicomus) . I found the Gallinules very com- 

 mon — there must have been at least five hundred pairs of birds. It was a 

 very beautiful sight to see the graceful creatures walking over the large 

 leaves of the pond lily, every now and then flirting their tails, oi- holding 

 their wings over their heads, as they walked from one leaf to another. 

 When flj-ing, chasing one another, the legs are always hanging down, and 

 the birds are cackling the whole time while engaged in this sport. They 

 have several very peculiar call-notes, one which is very guttural, is to be 

 heard incessantly. They are exceedingly' tame — one can almost step on 

 them before they take wing. If wounded they dive immediately, and 

 remain under water for fully five minutes at a time, and it is folly to 

 waste time in following them up, as they rise with only the point of the 

 bill out of water. The soft parts in life are as follows: — Crown shield, 

 azure blue, legs bright yellow, the tip of bill greenish yellow, and the 

 middle of bill bright red. 



The nests are commenced about May 5. They are built in rushes, 

 invariably over water, and are made of half decayed rushes. The nest is 

 substantially built, and well secured to the. rushes which grow in the 

 water. The birds have regular trodden paths leading to their nests, and, 

 strange to say, there are always three or four nests in all stages of comple- 

 tion near each nest which contains eggs. The eggs are from four to nine, 

 almost invariably six. They measure about 1.60 X 1.15 inches, and are 

 pale cream color or yellowish, spotted with brown or purplish. They 

 vary in size and manvwigs ; some of the eggs I collected are larger than 

 typical specimens of the Florida Gallinule, and some as small as large 

 specimens of the Virginia Rail, i never saw a Gallinule sitting — day or 

 night, rain or shine — and I really bel.eve the eggs are hatched by the 

 decomposition of the materials which com, o^c the nest. The young can 



