FLORIDA GALLINULE 311 



mannerism of spasmodically jerking its tail upwards. This results in 

 the white under tail coverts being intermittently flashed forth in a 

 conspicuous manner. No account of the courting antics of the Florida 

 Gallinule has been published from California, but Brewster has 

 recorded the behavior of a pair of these birds seen near Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts. After they had been under observation for some 

 time a great outcry was suddenly heard one afternoon, 



. . . and soon our pair of Gallinules appeared; the female, who was much 

 the plainer-colored in every respect, swimming swiftly, her tail lowered and 

 about in line with the back; the male flapping his wings on the water in his 

 eagerness to overtake her. This he soon succeeded in doing, but just as he 

 clutched at her with open bill . . . she eluded him by a sudden clever turn. 

 He then swam round her in a narrow circle, carrying his tail wide-spread and 

 erect, his neck arched, his scarlet front fairly blazing and apparently much 

 enlarged and inflated. 



During the chase one of the birds, presumably the male, uttered 

 a series of cries which sounded like ficket, ticket, repeated six or eight 

 times in succession. This cry was evidently a wooing note as it was 

 heard on no other occasion (Brewster, 1891, p. 4). 



Information concerning the nesting of the Florida Gallinule in 

 California is rather meager. Wicks (1893, p. 363) records the find- 

 ing of a nest with nine eggs near Los Angeles, April 27, 1890. The 

 nest was situated in a clump of tules and composed of the same mate- 

 rial. At Nigger Slough, Los Angeles County, Antonin Jay collected 

 a set of eight fresh eggs on May 5, 1901, and a set of five with incu- 

 bation commenced, June 30, 1895 (Willett, 1912a, p. 33). A. M. 

 IngersoU took a set of six partly incubated eggs at Lakeside, San Diego 

 County, on May 15, 1895, and another of nine eggs heavily incubated 

 at San Jacinto Lake, Eiverside County, June 7, 1897 (IngersoU coll.). 

 There is but one instance of nesting in the Central Valley of Cali- 

 fornia of which we know. At Dos Palos, Merced County, a set of 

 ten slightly incubated eggs was taken May 22, 1912 (Carriger coll.). 



The nest of the Florida Gallinule is always placed in a fresh-water 

 marsh, sometimes on small islands but usually on a mass of dead 

 tules and over standing water two or three feet deep. As elsewhere 

 described (Brewster, 1891, p. 6), it is a bulky affair for the size of the 

 bird, measuring 13 to 20 inches in diameter, and eight inches high. 

 The central cavity which contains the eggs was found to be 2% inches 

 deep by seven in diameter. As with the Mud-hen an approach or 

 ' ' gang-way ' ' of tules leads from the surface of the water to the nest. 

 In the east, incubation is said to commence with the deposition of the 

 first eggs, so that completed sets comprise eggs in all stages of incuba- 

 tion from fresh to nearly hatching (Brewster, loc. cit.). 



