RAILS. 127 



fully enjoy them I found that the air was freezing. I quickly got up, and on reach- 

 ing the fire made myself comfortable." 



Aramus was still in 1870, by Gray, associated with the typical rails within the 

 same genus. Here, as in so many other cases, Garrod's investigations of the anatomy 

 exploded an arrangement solely based upon external characters. He, in 1876, demon- 

 strated, that the limpkin is schizorhinal, that it has supra-occipital foramina, that the 

 palate, the sternum, and, in fact, the whole skeleton, is completely Gruine, He pointed 

 out that the pterylosis exactly agrees with that of Psophia and Grus, according to 

 Nitzsch, who says that it would have to be placed with these "if in its bill and its 

 long toes it did not so distinctly resemble Rcdlus. The form of the wings and the 

 texture of the plumage are, however, exactly as in Rallus. The myological formula 

 is BXY. The cseca are well developed, and peculiar in being situated laterally and 

 close together, instead of opposite one another. Altogether the ARAMID^E are com- 

 pletely intermediate between cranes and rails, making their separation into different 

 sub-orders indefensible. 



The family of the limpkins or courlans is a very small one, consisting only of one 

 genus of two species, and is strictly Neogaean, or rather tropico-American, in its dis- 

 tribution. One species, A. pictus, is restricted to Central America, the West Indies, 

 and southern Florida. The other, A. scolopaceus, inhabits eastern South America. 

 Mr. E. Gibson has recently contributed the following notes concerning the habits of 

 the latter, or the ' vidua loca,' as the Spaniards call it : - 



" The Spanish name the literal translation of which is ' mad widow ' -is given to 

 this bird by the natives from its sombre plumage, solitary habits, and peculiar cry. It 

 is generally distributed through the swamps, frequenting the deeper ones by prefer- 

 ence, and, though usually found singly, may be met with in fours and fives, or even as 

 many as twenty. Mr. Durnford correctly describes its 'heavy, laborious flight, per- 

 formed by slow beats of the wings, which it sometimes raises so high as nearly to 

 meet over its back,' but might also have added that the legs hang down at an angle 



~ o o o 



of forty-five degrees, giving the bird a particularly ungainly appearance, and that its 

 flight is never prolonged. The cry, more indulged in at night than through the day, 

 is a loud, long, melancholy wail, and, heard towards the small hours, produces an 

 uncomfortable eerie feeling on the hearer. It might be some lost spirit of the swamps, 

 or Nickar the soulless himself, shrieking and crying." 



Since the last family, the RALLIDJE, or rails, have already been characterized by 

 comparison with groups previously treated of, it is therefore sufficient to mention 

 that they are holorhinal, have no basipterygoid processes, nor supra-occipital foramina, 

 they have all the five classificatory thigh-muscles, long casca, and tufted oil-glands. 

 The bill is rather short and hard, the toes very long. The affinities of the family 

 have also been mentioned, though it should be added that prominent anatomists have 

 recognized relations towards the Gallinaceous birds. The characters pointing in that 

 direction indicate, perhaps, the generalized nature of the rail type and its antiquity 

 rather than direct affinity. 



The rails are particularly interesting, not only for their structure and habits, but 

 also for the fact that the family contains numerous forms which by disuse of their 

 wings have been deprived of the power of flight, and in which, therefore, the structure 

 of the parts constituting and supporting the organs of flight have become greatly modi- 

 fied. The fact that several of these forms have become extinct during historical times 

 directly or indirectly by the action of man adds considerably to the interest. 



