PUKTLF. GALLINULF- 
237 
Although its principal food consists of "'orms, 'nsects, and 
seeds of plants, it is accused of eating young birds and egg 
otSr species, and I remember at least one place uhere the 
Moor-E were looked upon .ith pr.a. '3 
of Pheasants’ and Ducks’ eggs, and when Ducks 
absent from the water meadows a hunt * the dogs jvas 
instituted after the Gallinules. 1 hese, after a little d ^ance 
would take to the trees, and on 
eleven Moor-Hens out of one clump of willow hushes. 1 an 
also certain that they occasionally roost m trees, as I have 
found them late at night in ever^eens, many hundjed ^ards 
from anv water, when I have been moth catchina- Y 
aS .by during the breeding .earon, me™ 
fectlv still, the observer may see the pair of old bird g 
from^ the reeds, and swim about with d’C”- nesUngs^ 1 tte 
beins clad in black down, the female being alwajs most 
solieftous of the welfare of the latter, and uttering a ducking 
note as she moves about, her white under tail-coverts being 
flirted as she swims, and the red garter above the tarsal joint 
always showing plainly. 
Nest-Generally a rounded and firmly built Structure of dry 
reed-flags and sedge, placed among the reeds on the edge of a 
pond, or on the sides of a lake or river, hut occasionally 
branch above the water level, and it has even been known to be 
located in a tree twenty feet above the ground. 
Eggs.— From seven to nine in number. Ground-colour, 
stone buff to reddish clay-colour, spotted with reddish-brown , 
these spots seldom very large, often tending to black, and in 
some specimens reduced to a sprinkling of dots. The under- 
Iving spotsare dark purplish-grey, and are often scarcely dis- 
tinguishable from the overlying ones. The eggs vary very 
much in shape. Axis, ri-f95 ^^hes ; diam., ri-iM 
THE PURPLE GALLINULES. GPZNUS PORPHYRIO. 
Porphyria, Briss. Orn. vi. p. 522 
Type, P. porphyria (Linn.). 
These large and brightly-coloured Rails differ in their horny 
bills, which are very deep, and have no nasal depression, but- 
