Florida Gallinule 97 
Distribution.—The eastern United States from Massachusetts and 
Kansas southwards to Jamaica and Cuba, but always a rare bird. 
The claim of the Black Rail to be included in the Colorado list rests 
on the statement of Mr. David Bruce of Brockport, N.Y., that he 
once shot a specimen in May at » pond near Denver. Like all Rails, 
it is a skulking bird, and is probably not nearly so rare as is generally 
supposed. It is known to breed in Kansas. 
Genus GALLINULA. 
Bill short, stout and rather compressed, running directly back into 
a frontal shield on the fore-part of the head ; nostrils elongated ovals 
near the middle of the bill; tarsus shorter than the middle toe and 
claw ; toes with a narrow lateral membrane, but not webbed or lobed. 
A widely distributed genus in the Old and New Worlds, with one 
North American, species; occurring but seldom in Colorado. 
Florida Gallinule. CGallinula galeata. 
A.O.U. Checklist no 219—Colorado Records—Allen & Brewster 
83, p. 198; Morrison 89, p. 167; Cooke 97, pp. 63, 158. 
Description.—Head, neck and under-parts greyish-black; darkest 
on, the head, whitening on the abdomen; back brownish-olive; wings 
and tail dusky; outer web of outer primary, a few stripes on the 
flanks and under tail-coverts, white ; iris red or brown, bill and frontal 
shield red, the former tipped with yellow ; legs greenish with a red ring 
round the tibia. Length 14:0; wing 6-8; tail3-0; tarsus 2-2; culmen 
1-10, with frontal shield 1-75. 
The young have no red on the bill or legs, the frontal shield is 
undeveloped, and the under-parts are more extensively white. 
Distribution. From Ontario, Minnesota and California south through 
the West Indies and Central America to the Argentine. 
The Florida Gallinule is hardly known in Colorado; it can only 
be considered a rare straggler. Allen and Brewster saw one in the 
flesh in Colorado Springs on May 9th, and E. L. Berthoud informed 
Cooke he had seen one on Lathrop Lake, near Golden, in 1883. 
Genus FULICA. 
Resembling Gallinula generally as regards bill, frontal shield and 
wing, but the toes long and provided with a scalloped lateral 
membranous lobe on either side, corresponding to the individual 
phalanges. 
A cosmopolitan genus with one North American species. 
