92 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



FLORIDA GALLINULE : Gcdlinula chloropus cachinnans 



Bangs.* 



State records. — Because of its very wide distribution in 

 America, breeding as it does from southern Canada south to 

 Mexico and South America, the Florida gallinule might with 

 propriety bear the name of American gallinule. It probably 

 occurs regularly in Alabama, but the scarcity of records seems 

 to indicate that it is rare or local. F. W. McCormack reported 

 (in 1912) that two were killed within the preceding two or 

 three years at Leighton. Amel Callaway reports it in winter 

 around the brackish lakes near Orange Beach, and H. P. Lod- 

 ing states that he killed a specimen at Dog River, Mobile Bay, 

 in November, 1895. An adult male in full plumage was cap- 

 tured in a yard in Montgomery, May 21, 1914, and kept in 

 confinement several days by Peter Brannon. On its death it 

 was preserved as a specimen and is now in the collection of 

 the Department of History and Archives at Montgomery. 

 The bird showed no indications of breeding, but had a severe 

 bruise on the lower end of the sternum, indicating an injury 

 sustained in migration. R. H. Dean reports one individual 

 seen near Anniston, October 24, 1916. 



In Chuckvee Bay, May 28, 1914, I flushed and shot down 

 in a small bunch of grass a bird of this species,, but it hid or 

 swam away under water and could not be found. At Nigger 

 Lake, December 1, 1915, I observed three individuals and col- 

 lected one of them as they swam across a bayou in front of 

 my blind in the rushes. 



General habits. — The Florida gallinule inhabits fresh-water 

 ponds and brackish bayous where there is an abundance of 

 vegetation affording cover. The birds swim easily and grace- 

 fully, their tails erect and heads bobbing at every stroke of the 

 feet. Like the rails, when flushed they fly rather slowly and 

 clumsily, with dangling legs, and quickly seek the cover of 

 the marsh again. They have a variety of loud, harsh, gut- 

 tural notes, which Brewster compares to the notes of a domes- 

 tic hen. The nests, which are quite bulky, are composed of 



*GaIlinula galeata of the A. O. U. Check-liat; foi' change of name see The Auk, vol. 

 33, p. 430, 1916. 



