The Purple Swamphen is probably not abundant in the Palaus. It is a large and conspicuous bird, and its restriction to swamps and areas around lakes may allow native hunters to obtain it rather easily, particularly by snares or by organized drives. Coultas (field notes) obtained specimens in taro swamps; he saw only 4 individuals and remarks that the birds utter harsh cries at night. The NAMRU2 party flushed an adult from lake side vegetation at Angaur on September 21, 1945. This bird was not taken, but a downy young was obtained in the area the same day.
Fulica atra atra Linnaeus
Common Coot
Fulica atra Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, 1, 1758, p. 152. (Type locality, Europe, restricted to Sweden.)
Fulica atra Hartert, Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, pp. 64, 69 (Guam); Seale, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 1, 1901, p. 32 (Guam); Safford, Osprey, 1902, p. 70 (Marianas); idem, The Plant World, 7, 1904, p. 268 (Guam); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 43 (Guam); Bryan, Guam Rec., vol. 13, no. 2, 1936, p. 15 (Guam).
Fulica atra atra Hartert, Vögel pal. Fauna, 15, 1921, p. 1852 (Guam); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 197 (Tinian, Guam); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 222, (Tinian, Guam); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 302 (Micronesia).
Geographic range.—Breeds in Europe, northern Africa, and Asia. Winters south to Africa, Malaysia, southern Asia. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands—Tinian, Guam.
Remarks.—The Common Coot is a straggler to Micronesia in winter. It has been recorded from Guam and Tinian. An unsexed specimen in the collections of the American Museum of Natural History was taken at Guam in the fall of 1896 by one of Owston's collectors.