FLORIDA GALLINULE. Sit 
FLORIDA GALLINULE. (Gallinula galeata.) 
PLATE XXVII.—Fic. 1. 
Crex galeata, Lichtenstein, Verzeich. Mus. Berlin, p. 81, sp. 826.—Gallinula 
chloropus, Wob. Cat. and Syn. Birds U.S. sp. 275.—Fulica major pulla, fronte 
cera coccinea oblongo-quadrata glabra obducta, membrana digitorum, angus- 
tissima, Browne, Nat. Hist. of Jam. p. 479 (Red-faced Coote).—The Coot, 
Sloane, Jamaica, ii. p. 320, sp. 15.—My Collection. 
In all cases wherein we find two animals, however similar or 
apparently identical in other respects, but restricted within 
very far distant localities, between which no line of com- 
munication can be traced, and beyond which, as in the present, 
case, they are not known to perform great periodical migra- 
tions, we may boldly assert that the individuals of the different 
countries belong to distinct species, having sprung from a 
different centre of creation, and not being descendants of the 
same original type. The few known exceptions to this ex- 
cellent general rule are daily falling in with it, as they come 
under the closer observation of the more and more practised 
eye of the naturalist ; and since the separation into different 
species of the gallinules that inhabit the different parts of the 
globe, there is reason to think that no exception whatever will 
be admitted to exist, and that all that remain are owing to 
the want of sufficiently minute comparison and examination. 
No birds, in fact, reappear in widely separated longitudes 
under forms and colours so similar as the gallinules, of which 
we are treating, and if all the species were found in the same 
country, they would hardly be looked upon even as individual 
varieties. Yet, upon the principle we have set forth, and 
which we do not fear to maintain, they have a right, and 
ought properly to be considered as real species. How different 
is the stand we now take, fortified by observations in the great 
field of nature, from that arbitrarily adopted by Buffon, who, 
on the contrary, saw everywhere the same species reproduced, 
but changed by climate, or I know not what, and, whenever he 
