GALLINULA GALEATA : FLORIDA GALLIXULE. 29I 



FLORIDA GALLINULE. 



GaLLINULA GALEATA {Lickt.) Bp. 



Chars. Birds of this genus and the following, as well as Coots, are 

 readily distinguished by the broad, horny plate which ascends 

 from the bill upon the forehead, known as the frontal shield. 

 The bill is much as in the ralline genus Porzana, and the 

 general form is not greatly dissimilar. The present species has 

 the head, neck, and under parts grayish-black, deepest on the head, 

 palest or whitish on the belly ; back brownish-olive ; wings and 

 tail dusky ; crissum, edge of wing, outer web of first primary and 

 stripes on the flanks, white. Bill, frontal plate, and ring around 

 tibias, bright red ; bill tipped with yellow ; tarsi and toes greenish. 

 Length, 12.00-14.00; extent, 20.00-22.00 ; wing, 6.50-7.50 ; tail, 

 3.00 ; gape of bill about 1.50 ; tarsus about 2.00. 



In Southern New England this Gallinule is of regular 

 occurrence, and is considered now by the local authorities 

 to be a rather common summer resident, though it 

 used to be rated as rare or even accidental. The Con- 

 necticut cases are numerous, and need not be recapitu- 

 lated. It is rarer in Massachusetts, where, however, it 

 doubtless breeds (see Allen, Am. Nat., iii, 1870, p. 639; 

 Maynard, Nat. Guide, 1870, p. 146, and B. E. N. Am., 

 1 88 1, p. 432.) Mr. Brewster remarks that it probably 

 breeds in the Fresh Pond marshes near Cambridge, 

 where he shot a young bird on the 9th of October, 

 1868, and saw another. 



Dr. Brewer notes a specimen, now in the Boston Soci- 

 ety of Natural History, shot late in the autumn of 1872, 

 probably in October, on Hummock Pond, Nantucket 

 (Bull. Nutt. Club, iv, 1879, P- 63). The same authority 

 speaks also of a specimen procured in Wayland, by Mr. 



