200 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



by the inhabitants for food and sport during the open season, from 

 September to April inclusive. In spite of this, and of the death of 

 many young birds which perish during the rainy season, it appears to 

 be holding its own fairly well. It is like the Bob-white of the north 

 in being a great destroyer of noxious insects, and a covey on a 

 plantation is an invaluable asset. 



39. Rallus elegans ramsdeni Riley. Cuban King Rail. 



Rallus elegans? (not of Audubon) Bangs & Zappey, Am. Nat., XXXIX, 1905, 192 



(Cienaga). 

 (?) "Virginia Rail?" Read, Oologist, XXVIII, 1911, 7, 13- and XXX, 1913, 131 



(I. of Pines). 



Two specimens: Siguanea. 



Measurements. 



No. Sex. Locality. Wing. Tail. Bill. Tarsus 



41304^ 9 Siguanea, I. of Pines 141 53 46 52 



41305' cf Siguanea, I. of Pines 150 60 57 54 



233478' cT Guantanamo, Cuba 149 53 57 54-5 



Four adult males from eastern U. S., average 166 68 58.5 58.5 



Although the King Rail was long ago recorded as resident in Cuba 

 by Gundlach, no specimens seem to have found their way into col- 

 lections until quite recently, when Mr. Charles T. Ramsden sent a 

 small series to the U. S. National Museum for examination. Mr. 

 Joseph H. Riley was thus enabled to prove the correctness of his sur- 

 mise as to the distinctness of the Cuban bird, which he accordingly 

 named in honor of Mr. Ramsden {Proceedings Biological Society 

 cf Washington, XXVI, 1913, 83). As might be expected, the Isle of 

 Pines bird also belongs to the same small, pale race. The two speci- 

 mens above recorded, although not actually compared with the type 

 of ramsdeni, differ from examples from the eastern United States in 

 the chief respects pointed out in Mr. Riley's diagnosis. Beside? being 

 smaller, they have much whiter throats and bellies, and the color of 

 the breast also is decidedly paler, less rufescent, than in the dullest 

 colored skins of true elegans available. The statement " sides of 

 head behind eye paler " holds only for the female, the male being 

 different, more like elegans, in this respect, so that this can scarcely 

 be used as a diagnostic character. 



Besides the pair taken at Siguanea, several others were seen there, 



' Collection Carnegie Museum. 



* Collection U. S. National Museum; measurements as given by Mr. Riley. 



