12a COMMON GALLINULE, Class II. 



IVillughbi/ in his description takes no notice of 

 the beautiful olive gloss of the plumage of these 

 birds ; nor that the bill of the male assumes a 

 fuller and brighter red in the courting season. 



It gets its food on gi'assy banks, and borders 

 near fresh waters, and in the very waters, if 

 they be weedy. It builds* upon low trees and 

 shrubs by the water side; breeding twice or 

 thrice in the summer; and when the young are 

 grown up, drives them away to shift for them- 

 Egcs. selves. They lay seven eggs of a dirty white 

 color, thinly spotted with rust-color. It strikes 

 with its bill like a hen ; and in the spring has a 

 shrill call. In flying it hangs down its legs; in 

 running often flirts up its tail, and shews the 

 white feathers. We may observe, that the bot- 

 toms of its toes are so very flat and broad (to 

 enable it to swim) that it seems the bird that 

 connects the cloven-footed aquatics with the 

 next tribe, the fin-toed. 



In the days of moated houses, they were very 

 frequent about the moats. They possibly might 

 be domesticated, for a pair in my grounds, 

 never failed appearing when I called my ducks 

 to feed, and partook before me of the corn. 



* It often builds among bull-rushes, which it treads down till 

 the nest reaches the bottom of the water, to the depth of nearly 

 three feet, allowing merely the part on which the eggs are depo- 

 sited to remain dry above the surface. Ei>. 



