COMMON GALLINULE. 



Gallinula chloropus. Lath. 

 La Poule d'Eau ordinaire. 



This common species appears not only to be dispersed over the whole of Europe, but extends its range over 

 the greater portion of Africa and India; and, in fact, like the Peregrine Falcon and Barn Owl, it may be said 

 to be universally distributed over the globe : it is even questioned among some of our most able naturalists 

 whether those from tropical America, China, and the islands of the Pacific, which exhibit the most trifling 

 marks of difference, should not be considered as identically one and the same species. In the British Islands 

 it dwells in rivers, ponds, sedgy districts, and all low marshy situations. During the severities of winter, 

 when all our inland waters are frozen over, it retires to the larger streams and rivulets, which afford it during 

 the rigorous weather not only a better protection against the sportsman, but also a supply of food, which 

 could not be procured on the banks of its favourite pond or accustomed residence. Although its long and 

 thin toes would appear to be but little adapted for such a purpose, it nevertheless possesses the greatest 

 facility for diving, which power it not unfrequently makes use of for the purpose of obtaining water-snails, 

 insects, and their larvae, which, with tender weeds and grasses found at the bottom of the stream, constitute 

 part of its food. In less rigorous weather it may frequently be seen on land, particularly in meadows and 

 grass-fields, feeding upon worms and insects, and when thus observed its actions are both elegant and grace- 

 ful ; if unmolested it soon becomes less shy and retiring, and adds considerably to the life of the landscape. 

 Its flight is heavy and awkward, and seems to be performed with great exertion. One circumstance 

 respecting this familiar bird appears to have escaped the notice of most ornithologists, we allude to the fact 

 of the female being clothed in a dark and rich plumage, and having the base of the bill and frontal shield of a 

 bright crimson red tipped with fine yellow ; her superiority in these respects has caused her to be mistaken 

 for the male, which, contrary to the general rule, is at all times clothed in a duller plumage, and has the upper 

 surface more olive than in the female ; the bill is also less richly tinted. We were first led to notice this fact 

 in consequence of observing the birds sitting or rising from the nest to be those whose richly coloured bills 

 had induced us to believe them to be males, and which the dissection of a great number of individuals has now 

 fully proved to us to be the females. Besides this difference in colouring, the sexes vary in size, the female 

 being about one fifth less than her mate. 



The nest of the Common Gallinule is neatly constructed of flags and weeds, and is placed among the 

 rushes in the most retired parts of the brook or pond. The eggs are from five to nine in number, of a pale 

 yellowish brown spotted all over with red. The young, which are hatched after an interval of three weeks from 

 the time the female commences sitting, are clothed with a black down, and so strictly aquatic are they in their 

 habits that they take to the water the moment after they are excluded from the shell, and are in immediate 

 possession of all the faculties requisite for obtaining their subsistence, feeding on water-insects, flies, &c. 

 At this tender age they encounter many enemies, and require the most assiduous care of their parents to 

 protect them from the attack of rats, weasels, and the voracious pike, which commits the most destructive 

 havoc not only among the young of this species but also those of many other kinds of water-fowl. The 

 young during the first autumn, although equal to the adults in size, have a much lighter plumage, the whole 

 of the throat and under surface being then greyish white and the bill and legs olive. 



The male has the bill red at the base strongly tinged with olive ; the whole of the upper parts olive brown ; 

 breast and under parts dark bluish grey tinged with olive ; the centre of each feather on the flanks is 

 blotched with a large oblong patch of white, which is the colour of the under tail-coverts ; irides red ; tarsi 

 and toes greenish olive, the former being encircled with a red mark immediately above the tarsal joint, which 

 is commonly called the garter. 



The distinguishing characters of the female and young being given above, it is unnecessary to repeat them 

 here. 



The Plate represents an adult female and a young bird of the first year, of the natural size. 



