338 
Synopsis of the Birds 
a year, but do not change their colors. Plumage thick and 
close, impermeable. Colors blackish. 
Aquatic. Live in fresh as well as salt water, but always 
near the shore. Among the best of swimmers and divers; 
swim on the surface, or beneath, quite as well and better 
than many of the web-footed tribes, keeping longer under 
water than most of them. Nocturnal: old birds never seen 
in day time: young less shy, playful, easily approached, fix- 
ing the gunner, and by diving at the flash, avoid the shot ; 
diving also for their food. Feed on small fishes, insects, 
mollusca, aquatic plants. Copulate in the water: breed in 
marshes, among the grass ; nest large, composed of aquatic 
weeds; eggs numerous, large; both sexes incubate, and 
take care of the young; young taking the water as soon as 
hatched. Walk with difficulty, and hardly ever but from one 
pond to another, taking wing if the distance is at all con- 
siderable. Rise on the water, spreading the wings, flutter- 
ing and running along the surface. Seldom seen on the 
ground, where they are so awkward as to suffer themselves 
to be caught. Take wing with difficulty, and during day 
time, only in great emergencies, even in preference burrow- 
ing into the mud. Flight when raised, rapid. Flesh black, 
unpalatable. 
Spread all over the world. Species few ; one in Europe; 
one closely allied in North America ; one in Africa, two or 
three in South America. Nearly related to Gallinula, cer- 
tainly of this family : artificially, but most unnaturally, united 
to any other bird. 
276. Fulica Americana, Gm. Slate color, under tail coverts 
and exterior lining of the wings pure white ; tail of fourteen 
feathers. 
Adult, head and neck deep black ; membrane white.* 
* As soon as the bird is dead, the membrane becomes tinged with reddish 
or dark chesnut in the European, as well as the American species. 
