128 
FLORIDA GALLINULE. 
GJILLINULH GJ1LEJ1TJ1. 
Plate XXVII. Fig. 1. 
Crex galeata, Lichtenstein, Verzeich. Mus. Berlin, p. 81, sp. 826. 
Gallinula chloropus, Nob. Cat. and Syn. birds U. S. sp. 275. 
Fulica major pulla, fronte cera coccinea oblongo-quadrata glabra obducta, membrana 
digitorum angustissima, Browne, Nat. Hist, of Jam. p. 479, ( Red-faced Coote). 
The Coot, Sloane, Jamaica , II, p. 320, sp. 15. 
My collection. 
In all cases wherein we find two animals, however similar or 
apparently identical in other respects, but restricted within very 
far distant localities, between which no line of communication can 
be traced, and beyond which, as in the present case, they are not 
known to perform great periodical migrations, we may boldly 
assert that the individuals of the different countries belong to 
distinct species, having sprung from a different centre of creation, 
and not being descendants of the same original type. The few 
known exceptions to this excellent general rule are daily falling 
in with it, as they come under the closer observation of the more 
and more practised eye of the naturalist; and since the separation 
into different species of the Gallinules that inhabit the different 
parts of the globe, there is reason to think that no exception 
whatever will be admitted to exist, and that all that remain are 
owing to the want of sufficiently minute comparison and exami¬ 
nation. No birds, in fact, reappear in widely separated longitudes 
under forms and colours so similar as the Gallinules, of which we 
are treating, and if all the species were found in the same country, 
