FLORIDA GALLINULE. 
^ * 
The Florida Gallinule, or Water Hen, is fourteen inches long: 
the bill one and a quarter to the corner of the mouth, and one 
and an eighth to the posterior portion of the clypeus ; it is red, 
as well as the clypeus, with the point greenish. This clypeus, 
or bare red membrane spreading over the forehead, is more 
than half an inch wide between the eyes, occupying a great 
portion of the head, and being posteriorly cut somewhat square 
or slightly cordate, the reverse of what is observed in the 
European, which is rather pointed at this place. The whole 
plumage from the very base is of a dark plumbeous hue, or sooty 
black, the head and neck being a shade darker, and the lower 
portion lighter and more tinged with bluish, so that they might 
be styled cinereous. The mantle, that is, the whole back with 
the wing-coverts, are highly tinged with olivaceous : the quills 
are blackish, and the tail deep black, much more than in the other 
allied species. The under tail-coverts are also deep black, with 
the lateral pure white : the white also lines the wings externally 
from all round the shoulder, almost, but not quite to the tip of 
the outer quill, which is white on half the outer part of its narrow 
web : a few white longitudinal spots may likewise be seen on the 
under wing-coverts, and very large and conspicuous ones along 
the flanks, and a few whitish streaks mixed with the plumbeous 
on the belly. The wings are nearly seven inches long, and the 
tail more than three. The feet are greenish, with a red ring like 
a garter surrounding the tibia : the bare space on this is nearly 
three-quarters, and the tarsus two inches and three-eighths : the 
middle toe without the nail is more than two and a half, and the 
nail itself three-quarters: the lateral toes measure more than two, 
and the hind, one and an eighth. The sexes are precisely alike. 
The little that is known of the habits of this Gallinule does 
not allow us to doubt that it has all those of its close analogues. 
It is common in Florida and Jamaica on the streams and pools, 
