{CaptionsBy}    Information Dynamics, Inc.

{LastEditor}    Anita Barrett

{ScannedBy}     NASA/KSC Public Affairs Office

{author}        NASA or National Aeronautics and Space Administration

{date}          25-May-1999

{description}   A mother gallinule (right) calls her two chicks to enter the
                algae-covered water in the Merritt Island National Wildlife
                Refuge, which shares a boundary with Kennedy Space Center.
                Gallinules, called Moorhens in the Old World, are duck-like
                swimming birds that constantly bob their heads while moving. They
                are identified by the prominent red bill with yellow tip and red
                frontal shield as well as white feathers under the tail, as shown
                here on the mother. Gallinules range throughout the Americas,
                from southern Canada to southern South America, inhabiting
                freshwater marshes and ponds with cattails and other aquatic
                vegetation. The 92,000-acre wildlife refuge is a habitat for more
                than 310 species of birds, 25 mammals, 117 fishes and 65
                amphibians and reptiles. The marshes and open water of the refuge
                provide wintering areas for 23 species of migratory waterfowl, as
                well as a year-round home for great blue herons, great egrets,
                wood storks, cormorants, brown pelicans and other species of
                marsh and shore birds.

{highres}       2617 x 1773

{highsize}      4126252

{hightype}      JPEG

{lowres}        320 x 217

{lowsize}       98963

{lowtype}       GIF

{mediumres}     1024 x 694

{mediumsize}    250169

{mediumtype}    JPEG

{number}        KSC-99PP-0660

{slideres}      172 x 149

{slidesize}     36929

{slidetype}     GIF

{tinyres}       100 x 68

{tinysize}      10373

{tinytype}      GIF

{title}         Gallinules in the waters of KSC-Merritt Island National Wildlife
                Refuge

{type}          Image

{end}