134 THE COMMON GALLINULE. 



rials of which it was composed were less abundant than in other circum- 

 stances. I never saw one floating loose, but have often heard people say 

 they had occasionally seen a nest in that state, although I am not much 

 disposed to give credit to such assertions. The number of eggs seldom 

 exceeds eight or nine, and is more frequently from five to seven. As the 

 bird lays more than once, its progeny is thus numerous. The Gallinules 

 cover their eggs when they leave them, no doubt to protect them from 

 Crows and other enemies, but return to them as soon as food has been pro- 

 cured, although both sexes incubate. The eggs measure an inch and five- 

 eighths, by an inch and one and a half eighths, and are of a dull darkish 

 cream colour, spotted and dotted with various tints of reddish-brown and 

 umber. 



The females are as assiduous in their attentions to their young as the 

 Wild Turkey Hens; and, although the young take to the water as soon as 

 hatched, the mother frequently calls them ashore, when she nurses and dries 

 them under her body and wings. In this manner she looks after them until 

 they are nearly a month old, when she abandons them and begins to breed 

 again. The young, which are covered with hair}'', shining, black down, 

 swim beautifully, jerking their heads forward at each movement of their 

 feet. They seem to grow surprisingly fast, and at the age of six or seven 

 weeks are strong, active, and perhaps as well able to elude their enemies as 

 the old birds are. Their food consists of grasses, seeds, water-insects, 

 worms, and snails, along with which they swallow a good deal of sand or 

 gravel. They walk and run over the broad leaves of water-lilies as if on 

 land, dive if necessary, and appear at times to descend into the water in 

 search of food, although I cannot positively assert that they do so. 



On more than one occasion, I have seen a flock of these young birds 

 playing on the surface of the water like Ducks, beating it with their wings, 

 and splashing it about in a curious manner, when their gambols would attract 

 a garfish, which at a single dart would seize one of them and disappear. 

 The rest affrighted would run as it were with inconceivable velocity on the 

 surface of the water, make for the shore, and there lie concealed and silent 

 for a quarter of an hour or so. In the streams and ponds of the Floridas, 

 this species and some others of similar habits, suffer greatly from alligators 

 and turtles, as well as from various kinds of fish, although, on account of 

 their prolific nature, they are yet abundant. 



This Gallinule seldom resorts to salt water, but at times is met with on 

 the banks of bayous in which the water is brackish. This, however, happens 

 only during winter. On land it walks somewhat like a chicken, and thirty, 

 forty, or more individuals may be seen searching for worms and insects 

 among the grass, which they also nip in the manner of the domestic fowl. 



