1891.] liRKWSTKK o)i Floridii Callinnlcs. C 



\vhercal)ouls. They were occasionally answered by a pair in a 

 neighl)oring swamp antl these in turn by a third pair further oil'. 

 In the early niorning ami late afternoon their calls were frequent 

 and at times nearly incessant. They ceased almost entirely after 

 nightfall, for the Florida Gallinule is apparently much less noc- 

 turnal than any of the Rails, if not so strictly diurnal as most of 

 om^ birtls. 



Thus far our experience had proved interesting to be sure, but 

 hardly unique, since the Florida Gallinule has several times been 

 observed within the borders of the State. On the morning of 

 Time 5, however, Mr. Faxon and I came suddenly on the nest of 

 the bird, never before foimd in Massachusetts. It was in the 

 midst of a low, half-submerged thicket of Spirea sallclfolia^ 

 intermingled with a few wild-rose bushes and alders, four or five 

 feet in height. The foliage was scanty, and the tops of the 

 bushes withered. Among their stems the water was from twelve 

 to fifteen inches deep, quite free from grass, flags, tussocks, or 

 any floating vegetation save a thin coating of duck-weed over the 

 surface. 



The uniform light color of the nest — a pale, bleached stiaw, 

 nearly that of dead grass — thrown into relief against the back- 

 ground of dark water, rendered it so conspicuous an ol)jcct that 

 it caught my eye at a distance of fully twenty-five feet. Obvi- 

 ously the birds had disregarded, either deliberately or inicf)n- 

 sciouslv, all considerations of protective coloring, and then, with 

 apparently studied boldness, had rejected the safe shelter ol tan- 

 gled wild-rose thickets, dense beds of cat-tail flags and clusters of 

 bushy-topped tussocks with which the marsh abounded, to build 

 their home among scattered bushes in the centre of a nearly open 

 pond ! 



With the exception of a little dry tussock-grass which foimed 

 a lining, the nest was composed wholly of cat-tail flags of last 

 year's growth, all of which must have been brought by the Galli- 

 nules a distance of at least twenty-five yards, much of the way 

 through bushes where the water was too deep for tiie birds to 

 o-et anv firm footing. As some of the stalks were nearly two 

 feet in length, an inch thick at the base, and very heavy, the 

 laltor involved must liave been great. 



About the rim and outer edges of the nest the flags were 

 broken or doubled in lengths of three to six inches, the ends of 



