BIRDS. 



463 



heart of the bulrushes, ' crik-crik-rik-k-k-k ' lustily shouted some wide-awake 

 rail, to be answered by another and another, until the reeds resounded. 

 Then all was silent again till the most courageous frog renewed his pipes. 

 The rails are, partially at least, nocturnal. During such moonlight nights 

 as this they are on the alert, patrolling the marshes through the countless 

 covered ways among the reeds, stopping to cry - all's well ' as they pass on, 

 or to answer the challenge of a distant watchman." 



The gallinules and purple gallinules must also be mentioned among the 

 rails : our common purple gallinule of the south being a beautiful bird, 

 with bluish green and purple plumage, and very long toes ; and the true 

 gallinule of the United States, of a black or brown color, 

 with a scarlet shield on the top of the bill. Here, too, 

 must be mentioned a huge rail-like bird, the geant, 

 which, two hundred years ago, lived on the island of 

 Rodriguez, along with so many other now extinct birds. 

 It was six feet in height, with white plumage. 



The coots are the most thoroughly aquatic of any of 

 the rail-like forms, inhabiting reedy marshes, swimming 

 with ease in the reaches of water, and rarely taking to 

 their wings to escape from clanger. They are shy birds, 

 retiring to the reeds when disturbed, and there they 

 build their nests. Sometimes these structures rest on 

 the soil, and sometimes they are rafts of reed-stems, 

 moored among the rushes, much like the nests of the 

 grebes. 



The cranes are large birds, which each year, like the 

 ducks and geese, travel to the north to breed, and then, 

 in the fall, return to the south to spend the winter. 

 They fly in the same V-shaped flocks as do the wild 

 geese, and the loud trumpeting of some of the species 

 attracts the attention as the flocks pass overhead. This note is loudest in 

 the whooping-crane, and the apparatus for producing it is interesting. In 

 most birds the windpipe has a straight course from the throat to the lungs ; 

 but in the cranes and some others it is variously coiled, the extreme being 

 found in the whooping-crane. Here the windpipe enters the breast-bone, 

 and coils round and round, the whole, both in appearance and effect, resem- 

 bling the convolutions of the horns used in our brass bands. 



Seen in flight, the cranes seem heavy ; their wings move slowly and 

 laboriously, and one watching them thinks that their volant powers are 

 about exhausted ; and yet they go on, a regular game of ' follow the 

 leader,' turning here and there, with the course of the stream they are 



Fig. 392. — Geant (Le- 

 guatia gigantea), as 

 restored by Scblegel. 



