402 FLORIDA GALLINULE. 



of the outer quill, whicli is white on half the outer part of its narrow 

 web : a few white longitudinal spots may likewise be seen on the under 

 wing-coverts, and very large and conspicuous ones along the flanks, and 

 a few whitish -streaks mixed with the plumbeous on the belly. The 

 wings are nearly seven inches long, and the tail more than three. The 

 feet are greenish, with a red ring like a garter surrounding the tibia : 

 the bare space on this is nearly three-quarters, and the tarsus two inches 

 and three-eighths : the middle toe without the nail is more than two 

 and a half, and the nail itself three-quarters : the lateral toes measure 

 more than two, and the hind, one and an eighth. The sexes are pre- 

 cisely alike. 



The little that is known of the habits of this Gallinule does not 

 allow us to doubt that it has all those of its close analogues. It is com- 

 mon in Florida and Jamaica on the streams and pools, and extends over 

 a great portion of the southern continent of America : in the middle and 

 northern United States it appears to be quite accidental, for although 

 a few well authenticated instances are known of its having been seen 

 and shot, even as far as Albany in the state of New York, it has escaped 

 the researches of Wilson, as well as my .own.. It is by no means, there- 

 fore, a common bird, and is not known as inhabiting arctic America, 

 ranging much less to the north, even as a straggler, than its European 

 analogue. Its voice is sonorous, resembling Ka, ha, ka ! 



The genus G-allinula has the bill shorter than the head, rather stout, 

 much higher than broad, tapering, compressed, straight, convex at the 

 point : both mandibles are furrowed, the upper covers the margins of the 

 lower, is inclined at the point, and spreads at base into a naked mem- . 

 brane occupying the forehead. This conformation, found also in the 

 Fulicce, to which Linn^ united them, more judiciously than they have 

 since been united with the Rails, in which the front is feathered, is in 

 my opinion of considerable impcrrtance : the Ibwer mandible is navicular : 

 the tongue is moderate, compressed, entire. The legs have been de- 

 scribed among the characters of the family, the anterior toes being in 

 all extremely long, flattened beneath, and bordered by a narrow mem- 

 brane, which circumstance alone distinguishes the Gallinules from the 

 Coots, that have a broad membrane cut into festoons. The hind toe 

 bears on the ground with several joints : the nails are compressed, sub- 

 arched, and rather acute. The wings are convex, rounded, the first 

 primary is shorter than the fifth, the second and third being longest. 

 The tail is so short as hardly to appear from under the coverts. The 

 females scarcely difi-er from the males, but the young are difi-erent from 

 the adults. They moult annually. 



The family Macrodacfyli, or Rallidce, when restricted to the five 

 genera of which we compose it (one being Fulica, which nothing but 

 blind caprice could separate from them), is surprisingly natural. The 



