RAILS. 199 



tinged with cinereous Line from the eye to the bill blackish. 

 Nape, from the top of the eye backwards, black, crossed by 3 nar- 

 row pale rufous bands. Cheeks marked with a faint waving bar of 

 black, on a broadish rufous ground. Back and scapulars deep black, 

 waved and tipped wdth pale and light rufous-tawny bands, spots and 

 zig-zags ; a row of the outer scapulars and dorsal feathers on each 

 side broadly tipped with cinereous, so as to give a very peculiar 

 blotched appearance along the sides of the back ; tertiaries and larger 

 coverts dusky, and finely zig-zagged with tawny. Primaries dusky, 

 the 3 narrow outermost edged with tawny-white. Tail intensely 

 black, each feather spotted on the edge, and terminated with a nar- 

 row rufous sub terminal bar, beyond which, they each end in a sort 

 of oval dusky ash-colored tip, which is of a bright silvery white 

 beneath. Long axillaries, and lining of the wing, rufous, with the 

 exception of a few broad lead-colored posterior feathers, with faint 

 marginal tawny spots. Under tail coverts long, thick and fibrous, 

 the lowest deep rust color, broadly tipped with white. Upper tail 

 coverts very similar to the tail, but with larger dilute rufous spots, 

 and fewer and smaller silvery tips. Feathers of the back, under the 

 wings, black, with the same marginal small rufous spots and tips: 

 lateral tail coverts bright tawny, with faint zig-zag bars of black. 

 Legs and feet pale reddish flesh-color. Eye black and full. 



The innumerable bars and zig-zags all over the plumage of the 

 European Woodcock both above and below, as well as on the quills, 

 are striking traits of external distinction from our bird, which has 

 not a single bar or spot below, nor on the primaries. The tail of the 

 European bird is also less graduated, and the feathers all of a 

 breadth; the rump likewise is bright rufous, with slender dusky 

 bars, and not black. Of the very different feet, wings, and head, 

 we have already spoken, and which appear amply sufiicient to form 

 a subgenus. 



RAILS. (Rallus, Lin.) 



In this family of birds the bill, varying in length, is thick at the 

 base, and generally straight and compressed; the upper mandible is 

 furrowed on each side, somewhat arched, and curved at the extrem- 

 ity, with its base extending upwards between the feathers of the 



