THE NIDOLOGIST 95 
FLORIDA GALLINULE 
The Florida Gallinule. 
HE accompanying sketch is that of a 
skin of the Florida Gallinule, and, as 
I have met with it but once in all 
my rambles, I have concluded it must be 
somewhat rare in this locality. I don’t be- 
lieve it nests here, though Davie places us 
within its range. 
The frontal plate and back part of beak 
is bright red and the tip is green; head 
and neck black; back mostly dark brown 
and slate; wings dusky, scapulars dark 
brown. On the front bow of the spurious 
primary and the large upper covert back of 
it is a white streak. The belly is light gray 
mingled with white. Along the sides under 
the wings are a tew Jong feathers. The 
under tail coverts are white and black, the 
white one being on each side. The tail 
feathers are black. A red band, about a 
quarter of an inch wide, encircles the tibia, 
directly below the place where it emerges 
from the feathers. 
The plates along the front of the tarsus 
are mottled with greenish-yellow. Feet 
are dark green. 
As this bird is very abundant in many 
regions and many of the ‘‘Nid’s,’’ readers 
are thoroughly acquainted with it, why not 
have a good paper on its habits ? 
J. H. Harris Jr. 
Kansas City, Mo. 
SS 
_ NATURAL REGRETS.— “I have been taking THE 
NIDOLOGIST since January, and am very well 
pleased with it. I am only sorry that I did not 
take it before.’ 
Haddonfield, N. J. 
LAWRENCE APPLETON.’ 
Unusual Nesting Sites. 
PON the northwestern prairies many 
birds are hard put to it to find nesting 
sites common to these species else- 
where. They are here through the summer 
season, evidently, because the climate is 
suited to their taste and the food supply 
affected by them abundant—for it is hardly 
to be doubted that birds in their spring mi- 
grations make a more or less extended ¢rzal 
of a locality befcre definitely settling upon 
it for a summer home. 
Of course the prairies for this latitude are 
swept with vigorous winds and the nights 
are often sharp, and the region is hardly 
adapted to the sensitive and delicate organ-- 
ism of many species, but the long succession 
of cloudless days with brilliant sunshine and 
the variety of vegetation, and abundance of 
insect life, furnish conditions suited to the 
tastes and requirements of the more rugged 
species, both great and small, and it is 
doubtful if a day in the field in June in any 
region of the country will bring to the notice 
of the observer a greater number of species 
than upon these magnificent, fertile prairies. 
In this great prarie region the Chimney 
Swift seems common and yet the opportun- 
ity to build in chimneys is comparatively 
restricted, for the reason that the country 
is new as yet, and brick has to be trans- 
ported from a considerable distance, and 
houses are supplied either with small chim- 
neys or none at all, the makeshift being 
often a metal ‘‘roof-jack.’’ Under these 
circumstances the Chimney Swift is driven 
to nesting on the inside of abandoned houses 
and sheds, glueing its unique little hol- 
