DESCRIPTION OF RALLUS JOUYI, "WITH REMARKS ON RALLUS 

 STRIATUS AND RALLUS GULARIS. 



By L.EOIVIBARD ^TEJIVEUEB. 



Rallus striatus is said to occur from India tlironf>liout Bnrinalj, Cochin 

 China, Malacca, Sumatra, Java, Southern China, the Phihppiue Isl- 

 ands, and Formosa. But it seems that several species or subspecies 

 have been lumped together under this name. The type of B. striatus 

 came from the Philippines, and Brisson described it as having " the 

 lower part of the hind neck, back and scapulars of a blackish brown, 

 each feather being marked on both sides with transverse whitish spots'" 

 (Ornith., V, 17G0, p. 168). A specimen in the National Museum (No. 

 77009), said to have couie from the Philippine Islands, agrees very 

 minutely with his full and excellent description, and I, therefore, take 

 it to be the typical R. striatus. 



Two specimens before me (U. S. Nat. Mus., Nos. 15427, 958.3), one ob- 

 tained by Peale in "Malacca," the other by Dr. Cantor in Peuang, may 

 be regarded as nearly typical R. gularis Horsf., which was originally 

 described from Java. 



The other specimens in our museum (Nos. 85751, 85752) differ con- 

 siderably from the foregoing ones, as will be shown further on, and as 

 they were obtained by Mr. P. L. Jouy, whose excellent collections from 

 China and Japan have added so much to our knowledge of the orni- 

 thology of these countries, I take great pleasure in calling this unnamed 

 species KaUiis jout/i or Eypotccnidia jouyi. 



Rallus striatiis Linn. (S. N., 12 ed., 17GG, I, p. 262) has the upper sur- 

 face blackish brown with small, but very distinct white dots, which on 

 the wings extend transversely^ into sharply-defined white bars, while 

 in the other two forms the color of the back is more or less olive; the 

 rufous on the upper head and neck is deeper, nearly chestnut, and in the 

 middle, from the bill down to the back, washed so strongly with dusky 

 that it blends nearly imperceptibly with the blackish brown of the back, 

 while the outer edges of the chestnut portion form a brighter band run- 

 ning from the sujiraloral region over the eyes and down along the sides 

 of the neck, ill-defined above, but sharply contrasting with the gray of 

 the sides of the head and neck. Lores, cheeks, fore neck and breast 

 gray, darker than in the allied forms, and slightly washed with oliva- 

 ceous. Entire abdomen and the tibiae very distinctly barred with 

 whitish and dusky, the flanks similarly barred, the dusky bars, how- 

 ever, being darker, nearly blackish, and broader. The primary coverts 

 are uniform without white bars or spots, while the other upper wing 

 coverts are distinctly barred with white. 



Rallus gularis Horsf. (Tr. Linn. Soc, XIII, 1822, p. 196), if the 

 Malaccan specimens do not differ from those found in Java, is of about 



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