RALLID.E — THE RAILS — RALLUS. 357 



Compared with the larger species (i?. lony'tmstrls, with its races, B. elegans and 

 B. ohsoletiis), it is difficult to say to which this Kail is most nearly related. None of the 

 forms of B. longirostrls, however, need close comparison, the darkest-colored race of 

 that species (B. longirostris suturatus, from Louisiana) having broader black stripes 

 and a very different (ash-gray) ground-color above ; the breast, etc., a very much duller 

 and lighter cinnamon, and the flank-bars broader and on a \iniform ground-color, it'. 

 obsoletus agrees best in the coloration of the upper parts, which, however, in all speci- 

 mens (including one from San Queutin Bay, on the western side of Lower California) 

 have a lighter, and in some a decidedly grayer, ground-color ; but the white flank- 

 bars are much broader, with unicolored interspaces, the breast very conspicuously 

 paler, and the size considerably greater. B. elegans has also the breast paler, the 

 ground-color of the upper parts a lighter and much more yellowish olive, and the 

 black stripes much more sharply defined. Upon the whole, I see no other way than 

 to consider the specimen in question as representing a very distinct species or local 

 race, which I take great pleasure in naming after its collector. 



[Note. — Since the above was written, the National Miisemii has received two additional speci- 

 mens, a male and a female, collected by Mr. Belding at La Paz in Januar}^, 1883. These agree 

 closely with the type, from Espiritu Santo Island, thus fully establishing the vahdity of the 

 species.] 



Rallus obsoletus. 



THE CALIFORNIA CLAPPER RAIL. 



? Eallus elegans, Coor. & Suckl. racific R. R. Re]). XII. ii. 1860, 246 (Washington Terr.). 

 Rallus elegans, var. obsoletus, Ridgw. Am. Nat. VIII. 1874, 111. — CouES, Cheek List, App.1873,137, 



no. 466 a. 

 Rallus elegans, b. obsoletus, CouES, Birds N. W. 1874, 535. 

 Rallus obsoletus, Ridgw. Bull. Nntt. Orn. Club, V. no. 3, July, 1880, 139 ; Norn. N. Am. B. 1881, 



no. 570. 

 Rallus longirostris obsoletus, CoUES, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, no. 674. 



Hab. Salt-marshes of the Pacific coast, south to San Quentin Bay, Lower California, north to 

 Washington Territory (?). 



Sp. Char. Adult : Above, grayish olivaceous, indistinctly striped with brownish black ; crown 

 and nape brownish dusky ; a light brown supraloral stripe ; lores and suborbital region dusky 

 brownish ; chin and throat white ; rest of head and neck, with juguhim and breast, light cinna- 

 mon, as in R. elegans; flanks and sides grayi.sh brown, with narrow bars of white (bars about 

 .08-.10 of an inch wide, the interspaces .20 to .30) ; axiUars and lining of wing similar, but darker, 

 the white bars narrower ; anal region and middle of abdomen plain pale buff ; crissum brown or 

 dusky, barred with white, the lateral feathers nearly immaculate white. Wing-coverts umber- 

 brown ; remiges plain dusky ; rectrices grayish olive, obsoletely dusky centrally. Dovmy young : 

 Uniform glossy black ; bill black and whitish (the latter on end and around nostril). 



Total length, about 17.00-18.00 inches ; wing, 6.40-6.60 ; culmen, 2.25-2 50 ; least depth of 

 bill (through middle), .32-.35 ; tarsus, 2.10-2.25; middle toe, 2.00-2.15. 



The Salt-water Marsh-hen of the Pacific coast differs from that of the Atlantic seaboard in the 

 more olivaceous upper parts, with very distinct dusky stripes, and decided cinnamon-color of the 

 breast, in which respects it approaches the Fresh-water species (R. elegans), the resemblance to 

 which is so great in the last respect that the bird was originally described as a variety of R. elegans. 

 The colors and markings of the fiaidcs, however, as well as its peculiar habitat, prove its relation- 

 ship to be rather with R. longirostris. We here treat it as an independent species, for the reason 

 that it is isolated geographically from any of the races of R. longirostris, while it may also always 

 be distinguished by its peculiar colors and proportions. 



