GRALLATORES. 359 



even building their nest, as is asserted, upon the 

 surface of the water among the reeds, which alone 

 prevent it from being carried away with the current. 

 This, it is true, seems somewhat improbable : they 

 take to the water, however, readily, and dive with 

 great facility. Mr. Rennie states that he has seen 

 a young brood of the Gallinule, or Moorhen, (F. 

 Chloropus,*) evidently not above two days old, dive 

 instantaneously, even before the watchful mother 

 seemed to have time to warn them of his approach, 

 and certainly before she followed them under water.-}- 

 Yet there is much of the manners of the Rails about 

 them, for " the Coot, (F. Atra,)" as Wilson affirms, 

 "has an aversion to take wing, and can seldom be 

 sprung in its retreat at low water ; for, although 

 it walks rather awkwardly, yet it contrives to skulk 

 through the grass and reeds with great speed, the 

 compressed form of its body, like that of the Rail 

 genus, being well adapted to the purpose ;"J and 

 Mr. Rennie, commenting on this passage, adds, 

 " We have often marked its progress by the top of 

 the herbage, on the edge of a lake, moving as if it 

 had been swept by a narrow current of wind." 



Some foreign species are beautifully ornamented 

 with fine hues of green, blue, and violet, and are said 

 to convey food to the beak with one foot in the man- 

 ner of the Parrots ; a very curious circumstance, if 

 true. 



* XA*<sj, cJdoros, green, and vovg, pous, a foot. 



t Hab. of Birds, p. 216. 



t Am. Orn. vol. iii. p. 123. Fac. of Birds, p. 220. 



