PURPLE GALLINULE. 
201 
habits, to pass the winter in the warmer parts of the Union, 
and probably extends its journeys along all the shores of the 
Mexican Gulf. 
The Coot is still a common bird throughout the temperate por- 
tions of North America, and examples have been taken in Green- 
land and Alaska. It winters in the Southern States and southward 
through the West Indies and Central America. 
Note. — The European Coot {Fulica atra) has been taken in 
Greenland. 
PURPLE GALLINULE. 
lONORNIS MART1NIC.4. 
Char. Back bright olive ; wings of deeper green and shaded with 
blue; head, neck, and breast rich bluish purple; belly darker; frontal 
shield blue ; bill red, tipped with yellow ; legs yellow. Length about 
13/4 inches. 
Nest. 1 n a marsh ; fastened to rank grass or reeds, and hidden by 
the stems to which it is attached, — made of dried and fresh grass and 
reeds loosely arranged. 
Eggs. 7-13 (usually about 9); pale buff or creamy, spotted chiefly 
around the larger end with reddish brown and lavender; 1.70 X 1.15. 
This very splendid but incongruous species of Gallinule is 
in the United States a bird of passage, wintering in tropical 
America, and passing the summer, or breeding-season, in the 
marshes of Florida and the contiguous parts of the State of 
Georgia, where it arrives in the latter part of April, retiring 
south with its brood in the course of the autumn, and probably 
wintering, according to its habits, in the swampy maritime dis- 
tricts along the coast of the Mexican Gulf. An instance is 
given by Mr. Ord of one of these birds being driven out to 
sea and taking shelter on board of a vessel bound from New 
Orleans to Philadelphia, while in the Gulf. This happened on 
the 24th of May, and therefore could only have been a bewil- 
dered straggler accidentally carried out to sea without any in- 
tention of migrating ; nor is it probable that a bird of such 
