40 PURPLE GALLINULE. 
on the low branches of trees and bushes growing over the water, and 
walks lightly and gracefully over them. 
It is seldom that more than one Purple Gallinule is shot at a time, 
unless in the beginning of the love season, when the male and female 
are apt to swim or walk close together. The male at this period is 
said to be able to inflate the frontal plate while strutting, but I have 
never been fortunate enough to observe this. 
The Purple Gallinule not unfrequently alights on ships at sea. 
While at the Island of Galveston, on the 26th of April, I was offered 
several live individuals by the officers of the Boston frigate, which they 
had caught on board. My friend Joun Bacuman once received three 
specimens that had been caught three hundred miles from land, one of 
them having come through the cabin window. He also obtained from 
the Hon. Mr Pornser a fine specimen caught on board, on the Santee 
River, in South Carolina, in May. It is easily kept alive if fed with 
bread soaked in milk; and on this food I have known several that re- 
mained in good health for years. In Louisiana, where it is called Rale 
Bleu, its flesh is not held in much estimation, but is used by the ne- 
groes for making gombo. 
My friend Bacuman considers this species as rather scarce in South 
Carolina and Georgia, but states that it breeds there, as he has occa- 
sionally observed pairs on the head waters or preserves of rice planta- 
tions during summer, but never met with any in winter. The extreme 
limit of its range eastward is the neighbourhood of Boston, where a few 
individuals have been procured. 
I think I may safely tell you that the figure of the Purple Gallinule 
exhibited in the plate, is the first ever published from a drawing taken 
from Nature ! 
Furica martinica, Linn. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 259. 
GaLLinuLa martinica, Lath. Ind Ornith. p. 769.—Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. p. 336. 
GALLINULA PorPHYRIO, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. ix. p. 67. pl. 73. fig. 2. 
PurpLE GaLuinuce, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 221. 
Adult Male in Spring. Plate CCCV. 
Bill as long as the head, nearly straight, stout, deep, compressed, ta- 
pering. Upper mandible with a soft ovate plate at the base extending 
over a great part of the head, the dorsal line beyond this plate straight- 
