GALLINULES 



(219) Qallinula galeata 



{Licht.) {Lat., a small hen; helmeted). 



FLORIDA GALLINULE. Ads. 

 — Plumage as figured. Bill and 

 frontal plate red. Legs greenish- 

 black, but with a red ring around the 

 base of the bare tibia, this distin- 

 guishing it from the Purple Gallinule 

 in any plumage. Im. — Extensively 

 white below. Downy young black, 

 with a silvery beard. L., 13.00; W., 

 7.00; Tar., 2.25; B., 1.50 along the 

 gape. Nest — Of rushes and grass, 

 in marshes; eight to fourteen buffy 

 eggs, spotted with dark brown, 

 1.7s X 1.20. 



Range — Breeds from Vt., Ont., 

 Minn, and central Cal. southward. 

 Winters from the Gulf States and 

 Cal. southward. Casual north to 

 N. B. 



clinging to reeds with their toes, allowing but the tips of 

 their bills to protrude above water. While swimming the 

 head is usually nodding in unison with the motion of the legs 

 and is turned from side to side on the lookout for danger, 

 for these birds are fully as timid as rails. When standing on 

 land the head is usually carried low and the tail elevated, 

 but one seldom gets a chance to catch more than a fleeting 

 glimpse of them, as they flee through the rushes. 



Their flight — and it is a difficult matter to force them 

 to fly without the aid of a good dog — is very weak and 

 fluttering; the legs are carried dangling awkwardly and the 

 birds soon drop out of sight in the reeds as though their 

 strength were spent. Yet they must, at times, be capable 

 of more or less protracted flight, for they summer as far 

 north as southern Canada, but none winter north of our 

 Southern States. 



The name Gallinule, meaning a small hen, was applied to 

 these birds because so many of their habits are hen-like. 

 Their notes, and they are very noisy at dusk, imitate about 



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