- /& X'G&t .... a? , 
(0clU M*-yuo C & 
9. Gallinula galeata. Florida Gallinule. — From being at first 
considered rare, the Florida Gallinule has been gradually coming more 
into notice, until now it must be looked upon as breeding here in consid- 
erable numbers. On the 3d of June, 1878, I collected a nest and eleven 
eggs, and on the eighth found five more nests in the same locality, four of 
which contained nine eggs each, and the fifth seven. There were thus 
fifty-four eggs in the six nests. 
These nests were all in a large, reedy slough, lying in the Minnesota 
River bottom, a few miles from Minneapolis. They were placed in patches 
of old wild-rice stubble, and were built up on a floating foundation of reed 
and rice stems, so as to be high enough to keep the inside of the nest dry. 
Coarse rushes and reeds were used in building, much of the material being 
so long that only one end entered into the construction of the nest, the 
remainder hanging in the water. Aside from the contents, the nest can 
be distinguished from that of the Coot ( Fulica americana) only by the 
fact that it is smaller, and that finer material is used in its construction. 
Eleven Coots’ nests found on the same days as the Gallinules’ nests men- 
tioned above, were precisely similar in situation and style of structure to 
the Gallinules’. In one instance, some grass that had grown up around a 
Gallinule’s nest was slightly woven together above it, as if to imitate the 
bower-like coverings formed above some Rails’ nests. 
There are in Southern Minnesota scores of just such sloughs as the one 
in which these nests were found, and if six pairs (probably many more) 
bred in this one, it is certainly fair to conclude that the Gallinule breeds 
commonly in Minnesota. It has been taken in the fall in several other 
localities and found breeding in one other. 
■ •IlN.O.a 4, Jmly. 1879, p. / 6 ~ 6 ~ 
HaXvL, (J)cJU ClIA-byL., l, 
'thei/' ht. sheet. 'IsCtct. iXsxsitm' T-cvkjsue ct tutP 
of F^Galinules 
| 2.X1.06 and 1.95x1.25. 
(ft A (jP. /Y. 
4. Gallinula galeata. Florida Gallinule.— Prof. F. H. Snow writes 
me, under date of October 20, 1885, that since the publication of his 
‘Birds of Kansas,’ in 1875, he has personally obtained in the State two 
specimens of Gallinula galeata. The first was captured by himself, June 
14, 1878, on the blackberry, in Gove county. The second, by a friend in 
the vicinity of Lawrence. The bird was entered in his Catalogue on the 
authority of Professor Baird, and at the time of the publication of my 
Catalogue, in 1883, they were known to breed both north and south of 
the State, and it was therefore safe to enter it as a Kansas bird. But my 
List only embraced the birds that came under my observation, and that 
of others as reported to me. From the tact that the birds nest thiough- 
out their geographical range, and from its capture so late in June, I enter 
it as a rare summer resident. I have found the birds nesting in Wiscon- 
sin as early as the middle of May. They nest in rushes and reeds growing 
in shallow water, or on swampy lands, building on the tops of old broken 
down stalks. The nest is composed of weeds and grasses; also the 
leaves of the cat-tail flag, when growing in the vicinity. It is a circular 
structure, and in some cases quite deep and bulky. Eggs usually eight to 
ten, buff white, thinly spotted and splashed with varying shades of red- 
dish brown. One set of thirteen, collected May 25, 1878, on a bog in 
Pewaukee Lake, Wisconsin, measured as follows: 1.63 X 1.18; 1.84 X 
1.27; 1.67 X 1. 18; 1.60 X 1. 16; 1.67 X 1. 18; 1.78 X 1.30; 1. 81 X 1-29; 
1.79 X 1.29; 1.88 X 1.27; 1.70 X 1.16; 1.80 X 1.30; i -75 X 1 - l8 » I - 8 ° x 
1.28. 
Auk, 3, Jan,, 1880, p. // 3 . 
On a Oollection of Eggs from 
Georgia, H. B. Bailey, 
97 . Gallinula galeata. Florida Gallinule. — Nests in fresh water 
ponds and near the margins of rivers ; eggs six to eight. May 18. 
Balls N.Q.O, 8, Jan, 1888 , P .42 
IV 
