RALLID.E — THE RAILS — RALLUS. 



353 



Rallus elegans. 



THE ZING KAIL; GREAT RED-BREASTED RAIL. 



a. 



elegans. 



Ralhis crepitans, WiLS. Am. Orn. VII. 1813, pi. 62, fig. 2 (fig. but not descr. Not R. crepitans, 

 Gmel.). — (0 Allen, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. III. 1872, 182 (Great Salt Lake, Utah).i 



IlaNics elegans, AuD. Oni. Biog. III. 1835, 27, pi. 203 ; Synop. 1839, 215 ; B. Am. V. 1842, 160, 

 pi. 300. — Baird, B. N. Am. 1858, 746 ; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 552. — Coues, Key, 1872, 

 273; Check List, 1873, no. 466; 2d ed. 1882, no. 676; Birds N. W. 1874, 535. — PaDGW, 

 Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 569. 



b. tenuirostris. 



Rallus elegans, var. tenuirostris. Lawk. Am. Nat. Feb. 1874, 111 (City of Mexico). — Eidgw. Bull. 

 Nutt. Orn. Club, V. no. 3, July, 1880, 139. 



Hab. Fresh-water marshes of the Eastern Province of the United States, north, casually, to 

 Massachusetts, Maine, and Canada West, regularly to the Middle States and Northern Illinois ; 

 west to Kansas (Great Salt Lake, Allen ?-). Replaced in the salt-marshes along the Atlantic 

 and Gulf coasts by representative i'ornis of E. lonrjirostris. 



Sp. Char. Adult : Above, yellowish olive or ochraceous-drab, very conspicuously and sharply 

 striped Avith black ; crown dark brown ; a supraloral streak of brownish white, continued to the 

 occi[)ut in a broader stripe of brownish gray ; lores and suborbital region brownish gray or dull 

 brownish ; chin and throat white ; remainder of head and neck, including juguluni and breast. 



light cinnamon ; flanks and sides dark brownish or blackish dusky, barred with white, the white 

 bars averaging about .10-.15 of an inch in width, the interspaces more than twice as wide ; crissum 

 mixed dusky and white, the lateral feathers almost immaculate white ; middle of the abdomen 

 considerably lighter than the breast, sometimes quite white ; axillars and lining of the wing similar 

 to the flanks, but white bars narrower, and less distinct. Wing-coverts rusty brownish, sometimes 

 inclining to chestnut, and not infrequently more or less barred with reddish white ; tertials widely 

 striped, like the scapulars ; remiges plain umber -brown ; rectrices raw-umber, with a dusky medial 

 stripe. "Lower mandible and edges of upper brownish yellow ; ridge of upper, and tips of both, 

 deep brown ; iris bright red ; feet yellowish brown, tinged with olive ; claws of the same color" 

 (Audubon). Dowmj young : Uniform glossy black; liill dusky, the end, and incomplete wide 

 band near the base (enclosing the nostril), pale yellowish or whitish (in the skin) ; legs and feet 

 brownish (in skin). 



Total length, about 17 inches; wing, 5.90-6.80 ; culmen, 2.12-2.50; dejDth of bill in middle, 

 .27-.35 ; tarsus, 2.20-2.40 ; middle toe, 1.80-2.10. 



The individual variation in this species is very considerable, both as regards coloration and the 

 proportions ; but it may always be readily distinguished from the allied forms by the characters 



1 May possibly be R. ohsoletus. 



2 No s[)ecimens seen ; may possibly be ohsoletus. 



VOL I. — 4.5 



