Place.
18.
«-SPOTTED G.
Description,
margins, and rounded in fhape * : legs dirty green: toes very
long.
This fpecies inhabits Italy, about Bologna, and known by the
name of Grinetta, and at Milan called Gillerdine. This has much
affinity, if not the fame, with the following fpecies.
Rallu« porzana, Lin, Syfl. i. p. 262, 3.— Scop. Ann. i. N® 144..— Frifch*
t. 211.
Le petit Rale cPEau, ou le Marouette, Brif. Orn. v. p. 153. pi. 13. fig. 1,—
Buf. Oif. viii. p. 157.—PI. Enl. 751.
Gallinula ochra, Wynkernel, Raii Syn. p. 115. 7.— Will. Orn. p. 316.
Spotted Gallinule, Br.Zool. N° 215.
Lev. Mu/».
r p H l S is much fmaller than the Crake, and meafures in
length lefs than nine inches: breadth near fifteen: weight
four ounces. The bill three quarters of an inch long, and of a
greenifh yellow : irides reddilh hazel: the head is brown, dallied
with black: over the eyes a ftreak of pale grey : hind part of the
neck and fides cinereous brown, marked with fmall white fpots:
back and wing coverts olive brown, dafhed with black, and
fp'otted with white on the edges of the feathers : greater coverts
blotched and barred with white: fides of the head, beneath the
eyes, the chin, and fore part of the neck, pale grey, dotted with
brown : breaft brown, fpotted with white: fides under the wings
irregularly barred with white: belly cinereous and white mixed s
down the middle dirty white : vent and under tail coverts ycllow-
ilh white : legs pale green.
* Willugbly obferves, that the tail when fpread out is concave, and not even,
as in other birds, and is a peculiar chara&eriftic.
This
This bird haunts the fame places as the common Gallinule, but ^.LACE AND M anne rs .
is not very frequent in this- kingdom: we have not been able to
trace it farther north than Cumberland, where it is known to
breed* ; and one of them, in company with its mate, was fliot
near Dartford in Kent, the fartheft fouth we have heard of it.
It is fuppofed to be migratory here as well as in France and
Italy, where it is found early in fpring, and is not uncommon.
We likewife find it in the fouthern reedy grounds of Rujia, and
the weft of Sibiria f •, but we believe no where fo plentiful as the
common fpecies. It is a folitary bird, except in breeding-times
fkulks among the rufhes and reeds, and builds among the latter:
the neft is compofed of rufhes matted together in form of a boat,
like which it is as it were moored, by faftening one end to a
reed, to prevent its being carried away by the water. The fe male
lays feven or eight eggs ; the young run as foon as hatched,
and are. wholly black. Buffon mentions one of this fpecies that
was kept tame, and was obferved to ftand in water for a long
time together, if not difturbed ■ it was fed with bread and hemp -
feed J.
A fpecies analogous to this, if not the fame, is alfo found at
Hudjoris Bay ■, it is much fmaller, meafuring in length only eight
inches, breadth fourteen, and weighs fcarce three ounces; it
comes there in May, and is feen in plenty along the coafts of the
bay, and about riyers, brooks, and lakes. Lays ten or twelve
white eggs, in a bufh or grafs : departs in October. Known
there by the name of Paupakapatejev>%.
* Dr. H'yjham. f Mr. Pennant. t Bjt. dee Oif. § Mr. Hutchins.
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