RAILS, GALLINUI.es AND COOTS 



(Family Rallidae) 



BY A. A. ALLEN 



ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ORNITHOLOGY, CORNELL UNIVERSITY 



^^r I iHIN as a rail" is an expression that applies as 

 I well to any of the members of this family of 

 curious birds as it did to the parts of Abraham 

 Lincoln's famous fence. For the rail is a marsh dweller 

 and nature has provided it with a compressed body like 

 that of a flea, to enable it to slip better through the 

 dense vegetation. 



There are about i8o species in the family but only 

 fifteen are found in North America, and of these only 

 four or five are 

 common even 

 in the most 

 suitable locali- 

 ties. By most 

 people they go 

 unseen and un- 

 known, for un- 

 less one haunts 

 the marshes, he 

 is apt never to 

 see one. When 

 a coot or a rail 

 meets with an 

 accident on its 

 migration and 

 is picked up by 

 the corner gro- 

 cer or the edi- 

 tor of the local 

 new spaper, it 

 a 1 ways causes 

 c o n s i derable 

 e X c itement in 

 the community 

 for it is usually 

 diagnosed as a 

 hybrid between 

 a duck and a 

 chicken, or, if 

 it is one of the 

 smaller species, 

 a cross between 

 a snipe and a quail. All of the members of the family 

 have rather long, stout legs like fowls, but their toes are 

 always long and slender to- distribute their weight when 

 running over the soft ooze or the floating vegetation. The 

 coot has lobes on each side of its toes to assist it in 

 swimming, for it is much more aquatic than the other 

 species and, like ducks, often assembles on the open 

 water in large flocks. All species have longer necks 

 than ordinary birds and much shorter tails, which, like 

 domestic fowls, they hold erect. They resemble fowls 



DUTY CALLS 



The Florida gallinule or water chicken returns to its nest in the cat-tails. Note the conspicuous frontal 

 shield or prolongation of the bill on the forehead. 



also in having short, rounded wings, but their feathers 

 are longer and softer giving their plumage a somewhat 

 hairy appearance. The gallinules and coots, and the sora, 

 yellow, and black rails, have short, thick, pointed bills 

 but the Virginia, clapper, and king rails have rather long, 

 slender, and somewhat decurved bills. 



The coot and the Florida gallinule, which are perhaps 

 the best known members of the family, are sometimes 

 called "mud hens" or "water chickens." They are simi- 

 lar in general 

 appearance, be- 

 ing uniformly 

 slate color and 

 about the size 

 of bantams. If 

 one cannot see 

 the lobes on the 

 toes of the 

 coot, another 

 good field mark 

 if the ivory- 

 white bill which 

 in the gallinule 

 is red and 

 green. Both 

 species have 

 what is called 

 a frontal shield, 

 a horny pro- 

 longation of the 

 bill on the fore- 

 head, which is 

 not found on 

 any of the rails. 

 In the gallinule 

 it is bright red 

 and quite con- 

 spicuous but in 

 the coot it is 

 brownish and 

 much smaller. 

 -•;. When swim- 



ming both species are quite ducklike, but their heads are 

 smaller and they are continually jerking them after the 

 manner of pigeons. When flushed they patter along the 

 surface for a considerable distance before they rise but 

 when fully on the wing, they resemble small ducks. Seen 

 on land or walking along the border of a marsh, on the 

 other hand, they do not resemble ducks in the least but 

 appear more like busy little hens, picking at everything 

 as they step along, lifting their feet rather high and 

 putting them down carefully as though they were always 



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