188 
MARTINICO GALLINULE. 
The foregoing was prepared for the press, when the author, 
in one of his shooting excursions on the Delaware, had the 
good fortune to kill a full-plumaged female coot. This was 
on the 20th of April. It was swimming at the edge of a 
cripple^ or thicket of alder bushes, busily engaged in picking 
something from the surface of the water, and, while thus em- 
ployed, it turned frequently. The membrane on its forehead 
was very small, and edged on the forepart with gamboge. Its 
eggs were of the size of partridge shot. And, on the I3th of 
May, another fine female specimen was presented to him, 
which agreed with the above, with the exception of the mem- 
brane on the forehead being nearly as large and prominent as 
that of the male. From the circumstance of the eggs of all 
these birds being very small, it is probable that the coots do 
not breed until July. 
MARTINICO GALLINULE — GALLINULA MARTINICA. 
Plate LXXIII. Fig. 2. 
Galliuula JMarfcinica, Ind. Om. p. 769,9; Gen. S'yn. iii. p. 255, 7. pi. 88. — 
Fullca Martinica, Linn. Syst. ed. 12, i. p. 259, 7 Fulica Martinicensis, Gmel. 
Syst. p. 700, 7. — La petite poule-sultane, Lriss. Orn. v. p. 526, pi. 42, fig. 2; 
Suff. Ois. viii. p. 206 La favourite de Cayenne, LI. Enl. No. 897, young? — 
Leak's Museum, No. 4294. 
GALLINULA f MARTINICA.— 
Gallinula Martinica, Lonap. Synop. p. 336. 
a. 
This splendid bird is a native of the southern parts of the 
continent of North America. I have never learnt that it mi- 
grates as far north as Virginia, though it is probable that it 
may be occasionally seen in that state. It makes its appear- 
* This species, in form, runs vei*y much into the Porphyrio of Brisson ; but 
without specimens, I cannot decide whether it should rank there, or on the con- 
fines of Gallinula. The characters of the former group, are the much greater 
strength of the bill, being almost as high as long, the greater proportional length 
of legs, and the splendid and metallic lustre of the plumage. In their manners 
they are partly granivorous, and live more upon land than the water hens. — Ed. 
