84 THE NATUEAUST IN BERMUDA. 



The Carolina Crake is found in the Island of Barbadoes, 

 and Gosse mentions it as frequenting the swamps of Jamaica; 

 but of the great body of these birds mentioned by Wilson 

 as annually departing from the shores of the northern States, 

 there is little cause to doubt that the rivers and marshes 

 of South America will prove to be their southern haunts. 



There is one circumstance connected with the history of 

 this, and, indeed, of many other migrants, which I have not 

 adverted to, viz., the very fat condition in which they arrive 

 in the Bermudas, and which renders it sometimes difficult to 

 skin specimens. Now this extreme condition has always 

 appeared to me to be a provision of nature, to sustain these 

 birds on their long and arduous flight from one region to 

 another ; if not, how are we to account for the maintenance 

 of the legions of plover, sandpipers, and other birds which 

 traverse the Atlantic, probably for thirty or thirty five 

 degrees of latitude, without food ? 



Common Gallinule, or Moor Hen {OalUnula cMoropus). 

 This is one of the native birds of the Bermudas, rearing its 

 young in pools and swamps, where the dense growth of 

 flags and sedge renders it almost impossible to foUow it. 



In October this gallinule is more common, appearing 

 suddenly in marshes and ponds, where for months pre- 

 viously it had been unknown. This autumnal appearance 

 must arise, either from the scattering of native broods, or 

 from an influx of migrant strangers from the American 

 coast. I am inclined to think the latter the most likely 

 cause. In October, 1850, a common gallinule was shot in 

 the waters of Hamilton Harbour, and on tlie 16th of Sep- 

 tember, 1854, a boy brought me a living specimen which he 

 had captured in the back yard of his mother's house in the 



