The Florida Gallinule 



are common, the lakes and marshes of southern California and the San 

 Joaquin Valley, the Coots outnumber the Gallinules twenty to one. As 

 a result, the really more distinguished and gallant Florida Gallinule is, 

 in California at least, a tradition observed only by birdmen, — the author, 

 or authoress, of certain eggs found in swamps, meekly accepted and no 

 questions asked. 



Gallinula — literally little hen — is in appearance a sort of connecting 

 link between ducks and chickens, but in habit she is an aquatic rail. 

 On the one hand, she swims freely and dives readily to escape a pursuer. 

 If undisturbed, she moves upon the surface of the water rather daintily, 

 nodding the head and perking the tail with each stroke as if she were work- 

 ing her passage. When under water the bird makes all speed for shelter, 

 where, if sore pressed, she is said to cling to the submerged stems of water- 

 plants, allowing only the nostrils to protrude for air. On the other hand, 

 the water-hen scuttles over the surface of submerged vegetation, or threads 

 the reeds with amazing alacrity, or else ranges the grass on the dry borders 

 of the swamps. 



But a bird, like a woman, deserves to be praised by a sincere admirer. 

 The description of the lowly fowl left us by Dr. Brewster 1 will not soon 

 be surpassed ; for he wrote under the inspiration of first discovery. A 

 few of his paragraphs are obligatory. 



"Sometimes one appeared, sometimes the other, but the male the 

 more frequently. He was a truly beautiful creature. With the exception 

 of the yellow tip, his bill was scarlet, and this color extended back over a 

 broad frontal shield which at a little distance looked like the red comb of a 

 laying hen. At every movement of the head this brilliant color flashed 

 like a flame. When he swam in under the bushes it glowed in the dense 

 shade like a living coal, appearing and disappearing as he turned toward 

 or from us, and often catching the eye when all other trace of him was lost. 

 In the sunlight his breast appeared to be of a rich bluish plum color, at 

 other times slaty. The legs were greenish yellow, the head black, the neck 

 nearly so, the wings and back cinnamon or reddish brown. 



"His manner of swimming and of feeding from the surface of the water 

 was very like that of a Coot. He sat high and accompanied the strokes 

 of the feet with a forward-and-backward nodding motion of the head and 

 neck, accentuated at times as he reached out to seize some tempting mor- 

 sel. On land he walked like a Rail, threading his way deftly among the 

 stems of the bushes and tall rushes, stepping daintily, lifting and putting 

 down his feet slowly, and almost incessantly jerking up his tail with a 

 quick, nervous motion which caused the under coverts to flash like the 



'Auk. Vol. VIII.. Jan. 1891, pp. 1-7; "A Study of Florida Gallinules with Some Notes of a Nest Found at 

 Cambridge, Massachusetts" by William Brewster. 



1555 



