Water Hen
the Gallinula chloropus, generally distributed throughout the world. Length of male about 13 inches; back, wings, rump, and tail rich dark olive-brown; head, neck, breast, and sides dark slate gray; thighs and flanks streaked with white, belly and vent grayish white; under tail coverts white; beak yellowish, becoming red, as Pennant notes, in the breeding season; naked patch on forehead red; red garter above tarsal joint; legs and toes greenish-yellow, claws dark-brown. The female rather larger and more vividlycolored than the male. They frequent ponds covered with aquatic herbage, overgrown water courses, and the banks of slow rivers, swimming and diving with facility, assisted by an expansion of the membrane along the sides of the toes.