BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA 
73 
Genus IONORNIS Reichenbach. 
Ionornis martinica (Linn.). 
Purple Gallinule. 
Description. 
“ Head, neck and under parts beautiful purplish-blue, blackening on the belly, 
the sides and lining of wings bluish-green, the crissum white. Above, olivaceous- 
green, the cervix (hind neck) and wing-coverts tinged with blue. Quills and tail 
feathers blackish, glossed on the outer webs with greenish. Frontal shield blue (or 
dusky) ; bill carmine, tipped with yellow ; legs yellow. The young with the head, 
neck and lower back brownish, the under parts mostly white mixed with ochrey. 
Length 12-14 ; extent about 22.”— Coues. 
Habitat .—South Atlantic and Gulf States, casually northward to Maine, New York, 
Wisconsin, etc. ; south throughout the West Indies to Brazil. 
The Purple Gallinule, a southern species, is a very rare and irregular 
visitor as far northward as Pennsylvania. Joseph Krider, two or three 
years ago, had a specimen which was taken near Philadelphia. In other 
localities stragglers, at irregular intervals, have also been captured and 
reported to me as follows: York county, Casper Loucks and George 
Miller; Mercer county, S. S. Overmoyer; Luzerne county, Dr. W. L. 
Hartman. 
Genus GALLINTJLA Brisson. 
Gallinula galeata (Licht.). 
Florida Gallinule ; Blue Rail. 
Description {Plate 66). 
Adult .—Length about 14 inches ; extent about 20 inches; general color grayish- 
black, darkest on head and upper hind neck ; lightest, and sometimes quite white 
on abdomen; middle of back, brownish-olive; edge of wing, outer edge of first 
primary, some of under tail-coverts, and stripes on the flanks, white. Frontal plate 
and ring about lower part of tibiae red (the red color on frontal plate and tibiae is 
oftentimes hardly noticeable in specimens taken in autumn and in immature birds 
the frontal shield is rudimentary, and the bill is brownish). Bill red with yellow 
end ; legs greenish-yellow ; iris brown. The young have much white or whitish 
on under parts. 
Habitat .—Temperate and tropical America, from Canada to Brazil and Chili. 
Regular, but rather rare spring and fall migrant. Probably breeds. 
Reports which I have received from twenty-two naturalists and collec¬ 
tors residing in different counties of the northern, southern, eastern, 
western and central parts of the state, show that the species is generally 
distributed in suitable localities throughout the commonwealth. All of 
my informants mention this Gallinule—called by sportsmen Blue Rail— 
as a straggler or very rare migrant. The Messrs. Baird mentions this 
species as a rare native in Cumberland county. Their food, according 
to Audobon, “consists of grasses, seeds, water insects, worms and snails, 
along with which they swallow a good deal of sand or gravel.” 
