No. S3.] BIRD NAMES. 123 



32, 34, 35, 36.) At St. Augustine, Fla., many class the Gallinule 

 indiscriminately with No. 32, as COOT, and Gosse (1847), speaks 

 of No. 33 being known as Coot in Jamaica, where No. 32 is the 

 " Water-hen." (For other " coots," see Nos. 28, 29, 30, 31, 37.) 



Some distinguish the Gallinule at St. Augustine as SUMMER- 

 COOT, and at Enterprise as MUD-PULLET, and again in latter 

 locality, and at Sanford same state, as the Florida Gallinule 

 or Gallinule simply, probably through the influence of sports- 

 men from other parts. A majority, however, on this southern 

 shore of Lake Monroe, term it Mud-hen. A bright - looking 

 young fellow at Sanford, Fla., to whom I showed a freshly 

 killed specimen, told me that he had always known it as the 

 BLACK GALLINULE— the word "black" distinguishing it from 

 the Purple Gallinule, Ionornis martmica (a smaller, less com- 

 mon, green and purplish-blue bird, not included in this book). I 

 showed the same specimen to a Sanford negro who said, " Why, 

 dat a coot," adding, after I had pointed out the difference, 

 " Yes, but day both coots." Another darky broke into the 

 conversation with " Naw, dat no coot, coot got a white bill, dat 

 a marsh-hen." The name Marsh-hen, nevertheless, is usually 

 applied at Sanford to No. 34. 



Health-seekers from numerous regions have greatly demor- 

 alized the vernacular of cracker, negro, etc., in Florida, and 

 nowhere can there be found a nomenclature more completely 

 muddled. A single species will have perhaps a half-dozen aliases 

 in a single neighborhood, each alias being familiar alone to the 

 man from whom you hear it. I encountered great difficulties 

 while collecting bird names along the more northern coast of 

 Maine, but my labor up there was pure play compared with ex- 

 periences in the far South. Many names heard at these extremi- 

 ties (the latter in particular) I have omitted, regarding them as 

 simply, or little more than, individual oddities. Nevertheless, 

 enough has been winnowed from the chaff to serve as a par- 

 tial key to enigmas. I should perhaps add that the negroes 

 of Florida are far more familiar as a rule with birds and beasts 

 than the whites are, though this is saying but very little. 



