244 FEATHERED GAME 
is colored as follows: back brownish green, be- 
coming a dusky color on the wings and tail. 
Edge of wing white, crissum white with a 
broad central patch of black running through 
it to the end of the tail. Frontal plate red. 
Bill red with yellow tip. Iris red-brown. 
Legs and feet willowy green, nails black. The 
bird is from twelve to fourteen inches long, and 
from twenty to twenty-two inches in extent. 
The bill and frontal plate in all specimens 
before mentioned as having been taken near 
Portland lacked the bright colors of the full 
plumaged bird, these being replaced by dusky 
green; all fall specimens. 
The nests of this species are loosely made of 
grass stems placed at the water’s edge on tus- 
socks of earth or even in some half-floating 
drift-stuff. A nest often contains as many as 
a dozen eggs. The Gallinule breeds anywhere 
in its range. 
