Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Any of various waterbirds of the family Rallidae, frequenting swampy regions and characteristically having dark iridescent plumage and a colorful area where the bill extends onto the forehead.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A bird of the subfamily Gallinulinæ, and especially of the genus Gallinula.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Zoöl.) One of several wading birds, having long, webless toes, and a frontal shield, belonging to the family Rallidae. They are remarkable for running rapidly over marshes and on floating plants. The purple gallinule of America is Ionornis Martinica, that of the Old World is Porphyrio porphyrio. The common European gallinule (Gallinula chloropus) is also called moor hen, water hen, water rail, moor coot, night bird, and erroneously dabchick. Closely related to it is the Florida gallinule (Gallinula galeata).

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Several species of birds in the genera Porphyrio and Gallinula of the family Rallidae.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun any of various small aquatic birds of the genus Gallinula distinguished from rails by a frontal shield and a resemblance to domestic hens

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin gallīnula, pullet, diminutive of gallīna, hen; see gallinaceous.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin "Gallinula"

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Examples

  • There is the eyebrowed thrush, from Siberia, the American purple gallinule, from the southern states of the US, and the black-throated thrush, also from Siberia.

    Rare birds flock to British shores in record numbers 2011

  • American purple gallinule Porphyrio martinicaA medium-sized bird with purple-blue plumage, it inhabits swamps, lagoons, flooded fields and ponds.

    Rare birds flock to British shores in record numbers 2011

  • Important breeding wetland species include marbled teal Marmaronetta angustirostris (VU,35), white-headed duck Oxyura leucocephala (EN,400, which nest mainly in artificial ponds in surrounding areas), white-eyed pochard Aythya niroca (VU), purple gallinule Porphyrio porphyrio and crested coot Fulica cristata.

    Doñana National Park, Spain 2008

  • It is particularly remarkable for its large breeding colonies, the millions of wintering waterbirds, and for harboring threatened species such as imperial eagle and purple gallinule.

    Doñana National Park, Spain 2008

  • Reed beds, sedges and other fresh-water species have been replaced by halophytes, causing a sharp reduction in the numbers of migratory birds which depended on the former habitat; all reed-dependent species such as purple heron, purple gallinule and reed warblers have disappeared.

    Ichkeul National Park, Tunisia 2008

  • A nearby Roman mosaic depicts a purple gallinule porphyrio porphyrio, which bred in the reed beds until a decade ago.

    Ichkeul National Park, Tunisia 2008

  • Birds of interest spotted in the component include the hooded merganser, the sora rail, the American bittern, the pied - billed grebe, the marsh hawk, the sedge wren, the least tern, the common gallinule and the least bittern.

    Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Maryland 2007

  • Yes, yes, from a purely aesthetic point of view the herons and the rare cranes of the Everglades are far lovelier; yes, the purple gallinule shimmers more gorgeously in the sun; and yes, the common moorhens the black waterbirds with red beaks are more funny and practical.

    Ooooooh! mariness 2006

  • That man of foolish understanding who steals ghee has to take birth as a gallinule.

    The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Volume 4 Books 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 Kisari Mohan [Translator] Ganguli

  • The jacana invariably lays four eggs, and the gallinule, at this latitude, six or eight, yet only a fraction of the young had survived even to this tender age.

    Edge of the Jungle William Beebe 1919

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