84 Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 



Description. — Top of head vandyke brown, the forehead with the bristly 

 shafts darker and the occiput with obscure darker mottlings; hind neck, 

 back and scapulars wood brown with broad dark seal brown centers to 

 the feathers, the hind neck more tawny and the dark centers rather 

 obscure; rump and upper tail-coverts darker than the back (nearer 

 broccoli brown) and the dark centers to the feathers not so pronounced ; 

 a supradoral streak extending to just above the eye, a spot below the eye, 

 and throat, white; supra-auricular region, light neutral gray; lores and 

 a line below and extending beyond eye, vandyke brown, bordered below 

 by vinaceous-cinnamon ; sides of neck and breast, vinaceous-cinnamon ; 

 abdomen, white; lower tail-coverts blackish brown barred with and 

 bordered on each side with white; sides blackish brown barred with 

 white; thighs, drab externally, white internally ; bend of wing bordered 

 with white; wing-coverts hazel; primaries and secondaries blackish 

 brown, becoming lighter towards the tips and slightly margined externally 

 with reddish, this color becoming more pronounced on the inner prima- 

 ries and secondaries; under wing-coverts blackish, barred with white and 

 a little vinaceous-cinnamon, the latter color more pronounced along the 

 border; tail broccoli brown with a broad central stripe of seal brown. 

 "Iris lightish brown.'" Wing, 149; tail, 53; culmen, 57; tarsus, 54.5; 

 middle toe, 50 mm. 



Remarks. — This form in color is not very different from Rallus e. 

 elegans, but is quite a little smaller in all its measurements as the follow- 

 ing will show : 



Besides the rive adults listed above from Cuba there is an immature 

 male that when compared with young of R. e. elegans in the same state 

 of plumage appears to be slightly darker. Cue of the females ( No. 386, 

 Coll. Charles T. Ramsden) is unique in that it lacks the hazel of the wing 

 coverts which are Brussels brown barred with black and white and the 

 vandyke brown stripe below and beyond eye is lacking or barely indicated. 

 These appear to be characters of the immature, though the bird appears 

 to be in adult plumage, otherwise. Some of the specimens of Rallus c. 

 elegans show the white spotting or barring on the wing-coverts to a 

 greater or less extent but not in such a pronounced manner as the above 

 specimen . 



Though Gundlach* gives the King Rail as a resident breeding bird in 



* Orn. Cubana, 1895,239. 



