Moorhen

s fighting These rails are dumpy, compact birds with mostly brown and black with some white markings in their plumage; they range from 25 to 40 cm long. The bills are red, mostly with a yellow tip, and the legs are yellowish-green to yellowish-orange; the toes are long, but not webbed, nor lobed as in coots. Unlike many of the rails, they are usually easy to see because they feed in open water margins rather than hidden in reedbeds. They have short rounded wings and are weak fliers, although usually capable of covering long distances. The common moorhen in particular migrates up to from some of its breeding areas in the colder parts of Siberia. Those that migrate do so at night. The Gough moorhen on the other hand is considered almost flightless; it can only flutter some metres. As is common in rails, there has been a marked tendency to evolve flightlessness in island populations. Moorhens can walk well on their strong legs, and the long toes are well adapted to soft uneven surfaces. They can swim well, despite the lack of webs on the toes. These birds are omnivorous, consuming plant material, small rodents, amphibians and eggs. They are aggressively territorial during the breeding season, but are otherwise often found in flocks on the shallow vegetated lakes they prefer. ==Systematics and evolution==

The genus Gallinula was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 with the common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus) as the type species. Species The genus contains five extant, one recently extinct, and two possibly extinct species. of Varshets, Bulgaria). • Gallinula gigantea (Early Pleistocene of the Czech Republic and Israel) The ancient "Gallinula" disneyi (Late Oligocene—Early Miocene of Riversleigh, Australia) has been separated as genus Australlus. Even among non-Passeriformes, this genus has a long documented existence. Consequently, some unassigned fragmentary rail fossils might also be from moorhens or native hens. For example, specimen QM F30696, a left distal tibiotarsus piece from the Oligo-Miocene boundary at Riversleigh, is similar to but differs in details from "G." disneyi. It cannot be said if this bird—if a distinct species—was flightless. From size alone, it might have been an ancestor of G. mortierii (see also below). ==References==