Rail-shooting 295 



Young Above, light fulvous brown, tinged with greenish on the 

 wings; beneath, buff; the belly, whitish ; frontal shield smaller 

 than in adult. 



Downy young Entirely black. 



Measurements Length, 12.50 inches; wing, 7.25 inches; culmen, 

 1.90 inches; tarsus, 2.25 inches. 



Eggs Five to ten in number ; pinkish buff with markings of pur- 

 plish slate, mostly in the form of small round spots ; measure 

 1.70 by 1.15 inches. 



Habitat Tropical America from Brazil and northern South America, 

 north to the West Indies and Mexico, and breeding in the United 

 States in Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia, and from Louisi- 

 ana to southern Illinois. Occurs irregularly north to Massachu- 

 setts, Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri, and possibly breeds ; and 

 rarely to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Maine, Ontario, Wiscon- 

 sin, Nebraska, Kansas, western Texas, and Arizona. Winters 

 from Florida and Louisiana, possibly South Carolina, south. 

 Recorded in England and Bermuda. 



A bird of the southern United States, breeding 

 occasionally as far north as South Carolina ; it is 

 found south along the Atlantic Coast from this 

 point and from Florida to Mexico, occurring in 

 the West Indies, Central America, and northern 

 portions of South America. The purple gallinule 

 has turned up at many distant points and has 

 been taken on the Bay of Fundy and several 

 times in New England. It is an occasional 

 visitor to Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ohio. 

 Many of these remote occurrences have been un- 

 doubtedly storm-driven birds. In the localities 

 where the purple gallinule abounds, it keeps under 

 the cover of grass and weeds, venturing out in the 

 early morning or toward evening to the close-by 



