GALLINULA GALE ATA. 



FLORIDA GALLINULE. 



[Plate XXVII. Fig. 1.] 



Crcx galeafa, Lichtenstein, Verzeich. Mus. Berlin, p. 81, Sp. S26.— GaUinula 

 chlnropus, Nob. Cat. and Syn. Birds U. S. Sp. 275. — Fvlica major puUa, fronte 

 cera coccinea oblongo-quadraia glabra ohdueta, membrana digitorum angusti ssima, 

 Browne, iVai!. Hist, of Jam. p. 479 [Red-faced Coote).—The Coot, Sloane, Ja- 

 maica, II., p. 320, Sp. 15. 



In all cases wherein we find two animals, however similar or appa- 

 rently identical in other respects, but restricted within very far distant 

 localities, between which no line of communication can be traced, and 

 beyond which, as in the present case, they are not known to perform 

 great periodical migrations, we may boldly assert that the individuals 

 of the different countries belong to distinct species, having sprung from 

 a different centre of creation, and not being descendants of the same 

 original type. The few known exceptions to this excellent general rule 

 are daily falling in with it, as they come under the closer observation 

 of the more and more practised eye of the naturalist ; and since the 

 separation into different species of the Gallinules that inhabit the differ- 

 ent parts of the globe, there is reason to think that no exception what- 

 ever will be admitted to exist, and that all that remain are owing to the 

 want of sufficiently minute comparison and examination. No birds, in 

 fact, reappear in widely separated longitudes under forms and colors so 

 similar as the Gallinules, of which we are treating, and if all the species 

 were found in the same country, they would hardly be looked upon even 

 as individual varieties. Yet upon the principle we have set forth, and 

 which we do not fear to maintain, they have a right, and ought properly 

 to be considered, as real species. How different is the stand we now 

 take, fortified by observations in the great field of nature, from that 

 arbitrarily adopted by Buffon ; who on the contrary saw everywhere 

 the same species reproduced, but changed by climate, or I know not 

 what, and whenever he could referred every new bird he met with to 

 the paltry creations of Europe. 



But to come to facts, and without longer indulging in theory, we shall 

 merely state that the Florida Gallinule differs specifically from the 

 common Gallinule of Europe no less than the Java Gallinule [Gallinula 

 ardosiaca, Vieill.), although the differences are almost imperceptible, so 

 as to justify those who have not hitherto distinguished between them, 

 among whom we are to be included ourselves. The true Gallinula ehlo- 

 ropus is spread over all Europe and the temperate parts of Asia, and is 



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