132 
THE COMMON GALLINULE. 
blunt papillse, behind which are two rows ; aperture of posterior nares linear. 
(Esophagus 7 inches long, of moderate width, its greatest diameter, at the 
lower part of the neck, where it is a little dilated, 8 twelfths. Proventri- 
culus lfV long ; its glandules 1 T C long. Stomach a large and powerful 
gizzard, broadly elliptical, 1^ inches long, 1-^ broad, its lateral muscles 
large, the tendons covering nearly their whole surface, the left muscles $ 
inch thick, the right fV, the cuticular lining moderately rugous. Intestine 
21 inches long, from — to T V in diameter. Rectum 21 inches ; coeca 2, their 
diameter towards the end. 
Trachea, moderately extended, 54 inches long, its greatest breadth 3-T, its 
least lyb. Its rings 130, very slender, unossified, collapsed, and owing to 
their narrowness in the middle line before and behind, seeming as if broken 
there ; bronchi with 15 half-rings. The contractor muscles moderate, the 
sterno-tracheal slender ; a pair of muscles on the lower larynx, from the 
lower rings of the trachea to the membrane over the first bronchial ring. 
In the mouth was a small frog, in the pharynx two, in the oesophagus two 
more, a large piece of root, numerous fragments of insects, and a leech ; the 
frogs 24 inches long. In the gizzard were seeds, and fragments of white 
fleshy roots. 
THE COMMON GALLINULE. 
Gallinula Chloropus, Linn. 
PLATE CCCIV.— Male. 
The two species of Gallinule which occur in the United States are con- 
fined within a comparatively small range in that extensive country, the 
southern portions of which appear to suit them beter, at all seasons of the 
year, than the other districts. The Common Gallinule is extremely abun- 
dant during winter along the rivers, fresh-water creeks, lagoons, ponds and 
lakes between the Gulf of Mexico and the eastern shores of the Ploridas, 
while in spring and summer a good number migrate eastward into the 
Carolinas, and now and then a few stragglers may be seen on the fresh 
waters of the Middle Districts, beyond which none, to my knowledge, have 
