YELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. 407 



eight, generally seven or nine in number, their color being always of a 

 green more or less tinged with olive, and very oval in shape. Different 

 in this from the Gallinules, they prefer stagnant to clear waters, and 

 always keep where the grass is high, and particularly avoid sand and 

 exposed shores. Notwithstanding their apparently limited powers of 

 flight, and a conformation similar to that of the sedentary and unenter- 

 prising Gallinules, they periodically undertake great journeys. They 

 walk with agility and ease, raising their head, elevating their feet, and 

 jerking up their tail : they alight sometimes on low branches, never on 

 trees, except to escape a very close chase. Of a nocturnal disposition, 

 they hide closely by day, seeking their food in the morning and evening, 

 or by moonlight when they emerge from their retreats. Their food is 

 both animal and vegetable; they search eagerly after worms and snails, 

 and are no less fond of certain leaves, and the seeds of marsh plants. 



The following description is taken from a fine male, procured, as we 

 have mentioned, in the neighborhood of New York in the winter. 



Length hardly six inches, extent about ten : bill six-eighths of an 

 inch long, exceedingly compressed, of a greenish-dusky, at base beneath 

 on the margins of both mandibles, and the ridge near the front, dull 

 yellowish-orange; irides dark drab: feet dirty ^esh-color; tarsus one 

 inch ; middle toe an inch and one-eighth long. Base of the whole 

 plumage slate. Head above chocolate-brown, the feathers being slightly 

 skirted with cinnamon-ferruginous, and on the hind part minutely dotted 

 at tip with white ; over each eye a broad stripe of cinnamon-ferruginous, 

 a chocolate spot between the bill and eye inconspicuously continued 

 beyond it, the chocolate-brown color descends from the nucha to the 

 back on the upper part of the neck in a broad stripe, the feathers of 

 which are widely skirted with cinnamon-ferruginous, and crossed by two 

 narrow white bands, one of which is terminal ; those nearer to the neck, 

 and the feathers of the rump having only the terminal band ; sides of 

 the neck and whole under surface yellowish-ferruginous, each feather 

 being tipped with darker ferruginous, which gives a waved appearance 

 to those parts, the waves being more intense on the lateral parts : throat 

 and belly whitish, but passing insensibly into the general color ; flanks 

 and thighs darker, with the two white transverse lines, as on the back. 

 Wings when closed reaching to the tip of the tail ; upper wing-coverts 

 dark slate broadly margined with olive-ferruginous, and each with two 

 white narrow spots representing the usual lines ; margin and spots 

 becoming by degrees inconspicuous towards the outer coverts ; inferior 

 wing-coverts and axillary feathers white ; quill-feathers plain grayish, 

 considerably lighter beneath, and with the shafts above darker ; last of 

 the primaries and first of the secondaries with two or three white dots 

 very irregularly disposed, five or six nearest to the body white on a great 

 part at tip, the last becoming, however, more generally grayish, and 



