220 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



History. 



The name Florida Gallinule is rather a misnomer for this 

 species, as it is a bird of temperate and tropical America 

 generally. Josselyn in his two voyages to New England (1672) 

 mentions Duckers or Moor-hens among the birds he found 

 here; and Brewster opines that, as Josselyn also mentions the 

 Coot, and as the Moor-hen of England closely resembles our 

 Florida Gallinule, there can be little or no question that he 

 referred to the latter. Peabody (1839) records a specimen 

 shot in Fresh Pond, Cambridge. Since 1891 birds of this 

 species have been seen frequently in Cambridge, one nest at 

 least has been found there, and the bird has been reported from 

 Nantucket, Norfolk, Essex, Worcester and Hampden coun- 

 ties, Mass. It is a fairly common summer resident in the larger 

 marshes of central and western New York, and in the Ontario 

 and St. Lawrence valleys, but apparently it is rather rare or 

 local near the coast of New England and in the Hudson and 

 Connecticut valleys. It seems to be rare now in New Eng- 

 land generally, except in some favored localities. In habits 

 and appearance, this Gallinule somewhat resembles the Coot. 

 It keeps well out of sight, usually among the reeds and cat- 

 tails, but at early morning and after sundown it sometimes 

 may be seen moving about in open water, where it swims and 

 dives well. This bird, like the Coot, is commonly known as the 

 Mud-hen or Water-hen, and many of the hen-like clucks and 

 calls that are heard in fresh marshes may be attributed to it. 



Wayne says that the eggs of this species and those of the 

 preceding always are in different stages of incubation in the 

 nest, and that consequently the young are hatched and take 

 to the water while eggs still remain unhatched in the nest. 

 Some of the young from one nest, he says, are from seven to 

 twelve days older than others. Brewster has given in The 

 Auk an excellent account of this species and its nesting habits 

 in Massachusetts.^ 



The Florida Gallinule feeds mainly on aquatic insects and 

 other water animals, succulent water plants and seeds. 



1 Brewster, William: Auk, 1891, pp. 1-7. 



