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REVISION OF THE CLAPPER RAILS — OBERHOLSER 323 



RALLUS LONGIROSTRIS PELODRAMUS, new subspecies 



Trinidad Clapper Rail 



Subspecijic characters. — Similar to Rallus longirostris longirostrisy but 

 upper parts, including wings and tail, much darker; edgings of dorsal 

 and scapular feathers somewhat more rufescent ; lower surface darker. 



Description. — Type, adult male, J. H. Fleming collection no. 20715; 

 Caroni Swamp, Island of Trinidad, March 16, 1902; Bodington. 

 Forehead, crown, and occiput clove brown, more or less conspicu- 

 ously but rather narrowly streaked with brownish olive and light 

 brownish oHve, the feathers of the forehead with stiff shiny blackish 

 shafts ; hind-neck, back, and scapulars warm dark clove brown, much 

 streaked by the broad brownish-oHve and light brownish-olive edgings 

 of the feathers; rump and upper tail-coverts warm clove brown, the 

 feathers very broadly margined with ohve brown; rectrices warm 

 clove broNvn, passing laterally into olive brown; primaries and second- 

 aries sepia, rather lighter on their outer margins; tertials dark clove 

 brown, broadly edged with Hght brownish olive; primary coverts 

 rather grayish sepia ; lesser wing-coverts light brownish olive ; remain- 

 ing upper wing-coverts between snuff brown and Saccardo's umber, 

 many of the feathers with ill-defined sepia shaft streaks; alula sepia^, 

 the exterior web of outermost feather with more or less dull ochra- 

 ceous buff along its margin ; sides of head grayish buffy brown, passing^ 

 into grayish olive brown on lores and rictal region; a narrow supra- 

 loral streak dull ochraceous buff, and a lengthened spot on lower 

 eyelid dull buffy white; sides of neck dull buffy brown, obscurely 

 streaked with dull olive brown; chin and upper throat white, with 

 but a suggestion of creamy tinge, laterally dull pinkish cinnamon; 

 jugulum and breast dull cinnamon, laterally much overlaid or mixed 

 with light olive grayish or olive brownish ; abdomen dull white ; sides 

 and flanks fuscous, heavily barred with white, these bars from 

 1.5 to 3 mm in width; thighs exteriorly dull pale brownish, interiorly 

 dull buffy whitish; lining of wing fuscous, the axillars rather broadly, 

 the under wing-coverts narrowly, barred with white. "Iris reddish 

 brown; upper mandible and tip of lower, blackish brown; rest of 

 lower mandible pale brownish red; feet brown with darker markings." 



Measurements. — Adult male ^°: Wing, 131.5 mm; tail, 54; exposed 

 culmen, 51.8; tarsus, 47.5; middle toe without claw, 46.5. 



Type locality. — Caroni Swamp, Island of Trinidad. 



Geographic distribution. — Permanent resident on the Island of 

 Trinidad. 



Remarks. — This new race is much different from Rallus longirostris 

 longirostris, of Guiana, by reason of its very dark colors, as already 



" One specimen, the type. 



