718 Some Noteworthy Birds. [ October, 
fly away. Nobody knows what it is, neither the fishermen nor 
the old gunners along the coast. They all say that it is a tropi- 
cal bird, and the most of us think it has been a pet on some ves- 
sel inward bound, and that it somehow got overboard and had to 
work its way to land. So I have come to see if you can tell us 
what it is. Now then, Pet, come out and show yourself to the 
gentleman.” Having thus delivered himself with the same pre- 
ciseness as when calling out the stations for his passengers, the 
conductor pulled up a few of the slats, and sure enough, the pet did 
come out and show himself, He had a body about as big as a 
pigeon’s, with long legs and long toes. I had never seen his like. 
But there were certain features so noticeable, that with “ Coues’ 
Key to North American Birds,’ the merest tyro could soon 
determine the genealogy of the stranger. The bill was pinkish- 
red, and as Patrick might have remarked—* The cratur carried a 
breast-plate on the front of his head; and though with never a 
stocking to its name, it wore red garters on its legs.” The bird 
had on its forehead a flat smooth plate like red coral, or sealing- 
wax, giving it a somewhat cooty aspect; and around each tibia 
was a red band, as if a fillet of the outer skin had been removed. 
It was the Florida Gallinule, Gallinula galeata. There was no 
strut in its walk. But for the occasional slipping of those great 
splay feet on the smooth oil cloth, the bird sustained a self-pos- 
session, with a dignity of carriage which was charming to wit- 
ness. I called in my family to see the interesting stranger. 
Their entrance in no wise disconcerted Gallinule, although Madam 
stroked him on the back and patted him on his head, and even 
felt of his helmet plate. He was evidently a person not to be 
injured by flattery. Although undesigned, there seemed to me 
genuine humor in the contrast of the running down of an insect 
on the lily pads of a Florida pond and that stately megalopodian 
tread on my study floor. But for our confiding nature we should 
have suspected the stranger of putting on uprightness, an instance 
of mimicry of that good old knight, Sir John Auricular, who in 
all God’s ways walked perpendicular. I came near asking, 
“Where did the bird get so much good breeding ?” but was inter- 
rupted by the conductor, who reiterated his theory as sufficient — 
for the facts: “ You see, Professor, how tame he is, and gentle. 
He doesn’t mind anybody. It’s that which makes us believe he 
is a pet off some ship.” “I don’t think so; though for all that 
