316 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.84 



valuable characters for subspecific distinction are size and propor- 

 tions of wing, bill, and other parts, the color of the upper parts, and 

 the color and color pattern of the lower surface. In view of the great 

 individual variation in practically all the forms, comparative descrip- 

 tions of plumages are of much more value in delineating and identify- 

 ing the different forms than are detailed descriptions of individual 

 specimens, although the latter are valuable for certain purposes. In 

 making such comparisons, however, the great individual differences 

 of size and color, in nearly all the characters, cause the differences 

 separating the races to be in many cases based on averages; and it is 

 furthermore of much importance in making comparisons between two 

 different races to use birds in the same state of plumage and repre- 

 senting the same color phases. 



The range of Rallus longirostris as a species extends north to the 

 Northeastern United States and to northwestern California, south to 

 Lower California, central Mexico, Yucatan, and through the West 

 Indies to Peru and southeastern Brazil. None of the 25 subspecies 

 that are here recognized has what might be called a very extended 

 distribution. With the exception of Rallus longirostris crepitans and 

 Rallus longirostris waynei all the forms are practically resident on their 

 breeding grounds and wander therefrom but little or not at all. The 

 habitat of most of the races is the salt marsh bordering the coast and 

 its inlets, although two of the races, as already indicated, Rallus 

 longirostris yumanensis and Rallus longirostris tenuirostris, inhabit, 

 so far as known, only fresh-water marshes. Some of the others, how- 

 ever, are occasionally found far back from the coast, to show that they 

 do at times live in fresh-water areas, just as Rallus elegans sometimes 

 extends its breeding range over into the salt or brackish marshes. 

 Except in a very general way these birds are not important as indi- 

 cators of life-zone boundaries, although they have a very interesting 

 connection with ecological associations. 



It might be of interest to mention a few of the cases so frequent in 

 plastic species — cases in which a subspecies differs much more in 

 appearance from its nearest geograpliical neighbors than it does from 

 some far distant relative. For instance, Rallus longirostris cuhanus 

 resembles much more Rallus longirostris saturatus than it does either 

 Rallus longirostris scottii or Rallus longirostris insularum, although the 

 two latter separate it geographically from the former. Also, Rallus 

 longirostris waynei is much closer in appearance to Rallus longirostris 

 saturatus than to Rallus longirostris crepitans, or even to Rallus 

 longirostris scottii. Likewise Rallus longirostris saturatus is much more 

 like Rallus longirostris limnetis of Puerto Rico than it is to either 

 Rallus longirostris scottii or Rallus longirostris insularum. Also, 

 Rallus longirostris insularum is nearer to Rallus longirostris saturatus 

 than to Rallus longirostris scottii, and more like Rallus longirostris 



