'0 
The head in profile presented the appearance of having been 
sliced off on the forehead, hut perhaps this is merely 
because of the absence of feathers on this part. This male 
Gallinule was one of the tamest water fowl I have ever seen. 
When it was feeding near shore, we walked down to the water’s 
edge and sat down on a rock within less than 40 feet of it 
without apparently causing it any alarm. It scarcely noticed 
a train which thundered past on the railroad that skirts 
the pond and when we shouted and clapped our hands, it merely 
looked at us with mild curiosity. It has probably become 
accustomed to sights and sounds of man, for there is much 
passing about the shores of this pond and several houses near 
by. 
When swimming, this bird moved quite as rapidly as 
a Coot and nodded the head and neck in precisely the same 
manner. It was silent during the half hour or more that 
we sat on the rick watching it, but this morning we heard 
it give the long cue-cue outcry, the hen-like crooning, and 
the frog note. The last was answered by its mate on one o 
occasion. 
The female appeared to be the shyer, or at least more 
retiring, of the pair. ’We saw her only once distinctly when 
she ventured out into open water a little distance and then 
swam along the edge of the bushes for several rods. Her 
frontal plate was much smaller and its coloring as well as 
the coloring of the bill much duller than in the male. 
20 
