RALLIDiE — TIIE GrALLINULES — GALLINULA. 
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made as that of the Common Gallinule, it being flat, and having an internal diameter 
of eight or ten inches, and an entire breadth of about fifteen. The eggs are said to 
be from five to seven in number — rarely more — and to resemble those of G. galeata. 
This resemblance is not very marked, however, and the eggs of the two species may 
always be readily distinguished one from the other by the delicacy of the shell of 
the egg of this species, and the more pinkish hue of the ground. Audubon describes 
the eggs as of a light yellowish gray, spotted with blackish brown. The young are 
at first quite black, and covered with down, and are fully fledged by the 1st of June. 
The ground-color of the eggs, both in the collection of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion and in my own, is of a light pinkish buff, covered with scattered markings of 
a purplish slate, and these are, for the most part, small roundish spots. Two eggs 
(No. 79) in my collection, from Matamoras, collected by Dr. Berlandier, measure, one 
1.75 inches by 1.20; the other, 1.58 by 1.25'. Two other eggs, from Louisiana (No. 
670), measure, one, 1.75 by 1.20 inches ; the other, 1.70 by 1.28. The ground-color of 
the latter is of a deeper shade than usual of the pinkish buff so characteristic of the 
eggs of the genus Porphyrio. 
Genus GALLINULA, Beisson. 
Gallinula, Briss. Orn. VI. 1760, 3 (type, Fulica chloropus, Linn.). 
Chak. Biff shorter than head, compressed, its vertical outlines convex terminally, straight or 
slightly concave opposite tire nostril ; nostril elongated, longitudinal, slit-like ; forehead covered 
by an extension of the horny covering of the biff (rudimentary in the young). Middle toe longer 
than the tarsus ; toes with a slight lateral membrane or margin. 
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The above characters will serve readily to distinguish the species of this genus from the allied 
American genera, Ionornis and Porphyriops, the former having the nostril small and oval, the middle 
G. galeata. 
toe shorter than the tarsus, and the toes without trace of lateral membrane, while the latter (an 
exclusively South American genus) has the frontal shield small and conical, and is, moreover, 
composed of birds of small size. Two American species of Gallinula are known, both more nearly 
allied to the G. chloropus of Europe than to any another species, but very distinct from that, as 
well as from each other. Their distinctive characters may be expressed thus : — 
Com. Char. Plain dark plumbeous, clearer plumbeous beneath, usually tinged with dark olive 
