Pygmy Rails and Gallinules 323 



found in rich pastures and meadows, where it skulks and hides, or runs with 

 the greatest swiftness and ease. Its low, creaking cry, which Mr. Hudson says 

 may be imitated by rapidly passing the thumb-nail along the teeth of a fine 

 comb, is sounded incessantly from meadows and fields. The nest is made of 

 grass and dry leaves and is placed on the ground among growing grain or grass. 

 The eggs are seven to ten in number, reddish with brown and gray spots. 



Pygmy Rails. Not far separated from the last are the pretty little Pygmy 

 Rails (Corethrura) of Africa and Madagascar, of which nine species are recog- 

 nized. They are only six or seven inches long and are chiefly remarkable, so 

 far as plumage goes, for the laxness of the feathers and the soft tail, which is 

 almost concealed by its coverts. The Rufous-chested Crake (C. rufa) of South 

 Africa has the head, neck, breast, and shoulders chestnut, while the body is 

 black, more or less streaked with white. This species, Andersson says, " fre- 

 quents stagnant waters, thickly fringed and studded with aquatic herbage, 

 amongst the ever progressive decay of which it loves to disport itself and to 

 search for food. It is very shy and retiring in its habits, seldom going far from 

 effective cover, and gliding through the mazes of rank vegetation with astonish- 

 ing ease and swiftness." 



Gallinules. The Gallinules and Coots, as already pointed out, are some- 

 times referred to separate subfamilies, and again to a single subfamily. Col- 

 lectively they differ from the Rails in having a frontal process or shield at the 

 base of the upper mandible, while among themselves they differ regarding the 

 toes, these being without lateral lobes in the Gallinules and with them in the 

 Coots. Both groups enjoy a wide geographic distribution, the former being, 

 however, most numerous in genera and species. 



The common or so-called Florida Gallinule (Gallinula galeata) may be taken 

 as typical of the Gallinules. It is found throughout the whole of tropical and 

 temperate America, ranging as far north as Canada and south to Brazil and 

 Chile. It is a small bird, only twelve or thirteen inches in length, dark bluish 

 slate-color above and whitish below, the back and scapulars marked with olive- 

 brown, and the flanks sparingly white-streaked. The frontal shield and bill are 

 bright red in life, the latter tipped with yellowish, while the legs are greenish 

 with the upper parts of the tibia scarlet. They frequent especially reedy and 

 bushy marshes along the shores of ponds and lakes, and among the tangled 

 vegetation of which they make their way with ease and grace. They are ex- 

 ceedingly timid and conceal themselves among the rank vegetation on the slight- 

 est indication of danger. When surprised they run nimbly and when hard pressed 

 take to the water, where they swim and dive well, and can rarely be forced to 

 take wing, and when they do the flight is short, as, with dangling legs, they 

 drop at the first opportunity. Mr. William Brewster has given an entertaining 

 account of the habits of a pair on which he made extensive observations near 

 Cambridge, Massachusetts. Of the male he says: "His manner of swimming 

 and of feeding from the surface of the water was very like that of a Coot. He 

 sat high and accompanied the strokes of the feet with a forward-and-backward 

 nodding motion of the head and neck, accentuated at times as he reached out 



