BOARD OF GAME AND FISH COMMISSIONERS 
73 
first days of September (Sept. 1, 1901, Long Meadow Gun Club, Hennepin Co., 
Roberts). On acquiring the second or juvenal plumage this red is lost and the 
white facial hairs disappear. This presence of the red color of the adult, 
to be lost with the molting of the down, is a singular feature. The immature 
Gallinule is usually called “King Rail” by our hunters but it should be easily 
distinguished. The exceptionally long toes of the Gallinule serve to support it per¬ 
fectly on the lily-pads and floating vegetation and it may often be seen in the 
spring walking daintily about out in the open sloughs, bobbing its head with each 
step and displaying at the base of the tail on either side a conspicuous tuft, of 
white feathers which clearly distinguishes it from all others of its kind. It swims 
easily like all the rails and sometimes feeds by tipping up the body until only the 
tail is visible, just like Teal Ducks. The food of the Gallinule consists of wild 
rice and other seeds, duckweed and pondweeds, insects of many kinds (dragon¬ 
flies were conspicuous in one stomach examined), snails (which are swallowed 
whole), other small mollusks, etc. One chick reared to adult size in captivity by 
the writer, lived on chopped raw meat and duckweed. This, bird when nearly 
full grown took to roosting at night on the lower limb of a tree in its enclosure and 
settled down contentedly with a Blue Jay on one side and a Brown I brasher on 
the other. 
The Coot, Mud-hen, Rice-hen, Mud-chicken, Mud-duck,. etc., with its slate 
colored garb, white bill, white frontal plate and lobed feet is so abundant and, 
unlike the other members of its family, so conspicuous that it is well known to 
everyone at all familiar with our water birds. Its habit of “walking the water 
when taking wing is a noisy and clumsy performance due to its shoit wings 
and heavy body. It comes in the spring as soon as there is open water and 
many remain until driven away by the ice in the fall. 1 hey feed by diving, tipping 
the body and picking up food from the surface of the water. They eat water in¬ 
sects of many kinds, snails and other small mollusks, wild celery,, wild rice, the 
tubers of pondweeds, duckweeds and other plants and fruits. This is about the 
average food of our ducks and when the Coot is abundant it probably makes 
a considerable inroad into the larder of those birds. At Heron Lake and similar 
places Coots become in the fall so fat that they can scarcely take wing—getting 
under way with the body hanging down and almost dragging them back into 
the water. 
In addition to the economic value of the Rallidae as insect destroyers, which 
is probably worthy of consideration, the members of the family may all be re¬ 
garded as game birds of some importance. The flesh of the rails and of young 
gallinules in the fall when they have been feeding largely on wild rice and other 
vegetable food is well flavored and suitable for the table. “Rail shooting” on 
the Middle Atlantic Coast has for a long time been a favorite sport and “rail- 
bird-on-toast” has always suggested a specially delectable meal, however much 
the accessories may have to do with it. Here in the west however the shooting 
of rail birds has not as yet become a frequent practice and is resorted to only 
occasionally when larger game fails. Since ducks have become scarcer, many 
hunters have been turning their attention to Coots, calling them “Rice-hens” as 
a more appetizing name. When the food taken is largely wild celery, wild rice 
and pondweeds, these birds are, if properly cooked, of good flavor and nutritious, 
much better than some ducks. What they have been eating and how they are 
prepared and handled in the cooking, determines largely their desirability as food. 
