WADING BIRDS 
218. Purple Gallinule. Ionornis martinicus 
Range. — South Atlantic and Gulf States; casu- 
ally north in eastern United States to Massachus- 
etts and Ohio. 
This European Rail is casually found in Green- 
land and along the Atlantic coast of North Amer- 
ica. It is the most abundant of European Rails 
and is found breeding in marshes, meadows and 
along streams. 
A very handsome bird with purplish head, 
neck and under parts, and a greenish back. Like 
all the Gallinules and Coots, this species has a 
scaly crown plate. An abundant breeding species 
in the southern parts of its range. Its nests are 
made of rushes or grasses woven together and 
either attached to living rushes or placed in tufts 
of grass. They lay from six to ten eggs of a 
creamy or pale buff color sparingly blotched with Purple Gallinule. 
chestnut. Size 1.60x1.15. Data. — Avery’s Island, 01 n ia e ' 
Louisiana, May 7, 1896. Ten eggs. Nest of dry rushes, woven to standing ones 
growing around an “alligator hole” in a marsh. Collector, E. A. Mcllhenny. 
[217-] Corn Crake. Crex crex. 
Pale buff. 
135 
