202 
WADING BIRDS. 
short wings as those which characterize the genus would make 
the attempt to travel any considerable distance over sea while 
a route by land equally favorable for the purpose offered. 
Little reliance, therefore, is to be placed upon these accidents 
as proving the maritime migratory habits of birds. Several 
hundred miles from land, towards the close of last June (1833), 
in the latitude of the Capes of Virginia, the vessel in which I 
was sailing for the port of New York was visited by two or 
three unfortunate Swallows, who, overcome by hunger and 
fatigue, alighted for a while on the rigging of our ship, 
whence they, in all probability, proceeded farther out to sea 
and perished. At this season of the year they could not be 
migrating, but had wandered out upon the barren bosom of 
the deceiving ocean, and would, in consequence of exhaustion 
and famine, soon after fall a prey to the remorseless deep. 
The Martinico Gallinule while in the Southern States fre- 
quents the rice-fields, rivulets, and fresh-water pools in com- 
pany with the more common Florida species. It is a vigorous 
and active bird, bites hard when irritated, runs with agility, and 
has the faculty, like the Sultanas, of holding on objects very 
firmly with its toes, which are extremely long, and spread to a 
great extent. When walking, it jerks its tail like a common 
Gallinule. In its native marshes it is very shy and vigilant ; 
and continually eluding pursuit, can be flushed only with the 
aid of a dog. 
This richly apparelled and beautiful bird is found regularly and 
is quite common in all the Southern and Gulf States, and stragglers 
are frecpjcntly seen northward to New England and westward to 
Wisconsin. The only examples reported from Canada have been 
taken in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. These birds do not 
leave the United States in winter, as Nuttall supposed ; they are 
found in the South throughout the year. 
They are called “ Sultanas ” in Jamaica, where Mr. Gosse found 
them quite common ; and this writer states that those he saw were 
extremely indifferent to his approach, allowing him to walk to 
within a few feet of where they were feeding, without manifesting 
any fear, 
Audubon states that after the brood is hatched the family retires 
