SCARLET-FRONTED GALLINULE. 383 



reach the weeds and grass at the margins, and if 

 allowed to do so, crept in among them, and re- 

 mained motionless. Sometimes, when thus retired, 

 it put its whole head beneath the water, and re- 

 mained still, so long that I feared it was drowned ; 

 but on being touched, it raised its head unin- 

 jured. It seemed unwilling to walk; perhaps 

 because its legs were stiff, from having been held 

 in the hand; on a boarded floor, it could only 

 shuffle along on its belly: and on the turf, it 

 seemed capable of maintaining a walking posture 

 only as long as its motion was rapid; the moment 

 its speed abated, its breast came to the ground, 

 owing to the backward position of its legs. Its 

 foecal discharges, when first secured, were a thin 

 black mud, but afterwards were merely a clear 

 water, slightly tinged with green. 



The belly in these birds is always protuberant; 

 the intestines being both very long and very large ; 

 the caeca are also enormous. The stomach, a very 

 large and muscular gizzard, is usually filled, as 

 well as the craw and intestine, with a greenish 

 earth, which under a lens is seen to contain much 

 organized matter, as minute seeds, decaying leaves, 

 &c. From the circumstance of an excessive quan- 

 tity of matter being taken into the stomach, con- 

 taining a comparatively small proportion of nutri- 

 tive substance, we see the need of the digestive 

 organs being both capacious and lengthened. 



The young of the season have the legs and feet 

 of their full size and development, while the fea- 

 thers of the wings are only beginning to protrude ; 



