PURPLE GALLINULE. 237 



Although its principal food consists of worms, insects, and 

 seeds of plants, it is accused of eating young birds and eggs of 

 other species, and I remember at least one place where the 

 Moor-Hens were looked upon with great disfavour as devourers 

 of Pheasants' and Ducks' eggs, and when Ducks or Snipe were 

 absent from the water meadows, a hunt with the dogs was 

 instituted after the Gallinules. These, after a little disturbance, 

 would take to the trees, and on one occasion I myself shot 

 eleven Moor-Hens out of one clump of willow bushes. I am 

 also certain that they occasionally roost in trees, as I have 

 found them late at night in evergreens, many hundred yards 

 from any water, when I have been moth-catching. They 

 are shy during the breeding season, but by remaining per- 

 fectly still, the observer may see the pair of old birds emerge 

 from the reeds, and swim about with their nestlings, the latter 

 being clad in black down, the female being always most 

 solicitous of the welfare of the latter, and uttering a clucking 

 note as she moves about, her white under tail-coverts being 

 flirted as she swims, and the red garter above the tarsal joint 

 always showing plainly. 



Nest. Generally a rounded and firmly built structure of dry 

 reed-flags and sedge, placed among the reeds on the edge of a 

 pond, or on the sides of a lake or river, but occasionally built on a 

 branch above the water level, and it has even been known to be 

 located in a tree twenty feet above the ground. 



Eggs. From seven to nine in number. Ground-colour, 

 stone-buff to reddish clay-colour, spotted with reddish-brown ; 

 these spots seldom very large, often tending to black, and in 

 some specimens reduced to a sprinkling of dots. The under- 

 lying spots are dark purplish-grey, and are often scarcely dis- 

 tinguishable from the overlying ones. The eggs vary very 

 much in shape. Axis, 1-1-1-95 inches ; diam., 1-1-1-4 



THE PURPLE GALLINULES. GENUS PORPIIYRIO. 

 PorphyriO) Briss. Orn. vi. p. 522 (1760). 



Type, P. porphyrio (Linn.). 



These large and brightly-coloured Rails differ in their horny 

 bills, which are very deep, and have no nasal depression, but 



