JUNE 5, 1899 Vou. I, pp. 45-46 
PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
NEW ENGLAND ZOOLOGICAL CLUB 
A NEW RAIL FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 
BY OUTRAM BANGS. 
THE large rail that inhabits the marshes of southern California 
differs very much from Ral/us obsoletus of the marshes of San 
Francisco Bay, and quite as much from A. de/ding: of Lower 
California. It is not a common bird in collections; still there 
are several skins in the National Museum, several in Mr. William 
Brewster’s collection, and one in my own. All of these I have 
examined, and I find very little variation among them. Its 
characters are so well marked and so constant that I regard it as 
a distinct species, and I propose to call it 
Rallus levipes' sp. nov. 
Type, from Newport Landing, Los Angeles Co., California, 9 adult, no. 
678, coll. of E. A. and O. Bangs, collected Feb. 23, 1886, by F. Stephens. 
Characters.— Much smaller than either &. odsoletus or XR. beldingi ; bill much 
more slender; tarsus and foot smaller than in either. In color it differs from 
FR. obsoletus in being much darker above — more olive and less grayish, brown; 
in having breast and sides of neck deep cinnamon-rufous instead of grayish 
cinnamon, this color extending well up on sides of neck and meeting the color 
of upper parts sharply; ground color of flanks, etc., darker—less grayish; 
a gray patch behind eye; superciliary streak w/zte instead of rusty. From 
R. beldingi it differs, in color, in having the back feathers much less decidedly 
streaked; breast, etc., less pinkish or salmon-colored; flanks, etc., browner — 
- 1Levipes — light-footed. 
