140 RAILS, GALLINULES, AND COOTS. 



II. Bill under 1-75. 

 A. Wing over 6*00. 



a. General color blue, feet yellow 218. Purple Gallinule. 



b. General color slaty, feet dark greenish, 



fti. Toes with large scalloped webs or flaps at the side. 221. Am, Coot. 



h^. Toes without flaps or webs 219. Florida Gallinule. 



J3. Wing under 6-00. 



a. Wing under 3-50. 



a^. Back blackish, with small round, white spots . 216. Black Kail, 

 a". Back blackish, barred with white and margined with buffy. 



215. Yellow Kail, 



b. Wing over 3"50. 



bK Bill over 1-00 212. Virginia Kail. 



fi. Bill under 1-00, 



6-2. Wing over 4-50, lesser wing-coverts rufous , 217, Corn Crake, 



c3. Wing under 4-50, lesser wing-coverts olive , , , . 214. "Sora, 



208. Rallus elegans .4«<7. King Rail ; Marsh Hen, Ad. — Upper 

 parts varying from olive-brown to black, the back and scapulars widely mar- 

 gined with olive-gray; wings and tail olive-brown; wing-eoverts rufous; 

 throat white ; neck and breast cinnamon-rufous / belly and sides ftiscous^ 

 sharply barred with white. Dotvny Young — Glossy black. L., 15'00; W., 

 6-50 ; Tar., 2-20 ; B., 2-40. 



Range. — Eastern North America ; breeds as far north as Missouri and 

 southern Connecticut, and occasionally strays as far as Wisconsin, Ontario, 

 and Maine ; winters from Virginia southward. 



Washington, uncommon*^ S. K., almost a P. K. Long Island, rare S. K. 



Nest., of grasses, on the ground in fresh-water marshes. Eggs., seven to 

 twelve, buffy white, more heavily spotted and speckled with rufous-brown 

 than those of the next species, 1-68 x 1-20. 



The King Rail is the fresh-water representative of the Clapper RaiL 

 It is, however, a much less common bird, and less is known of its 

 habits. Like other Rails, it is a skulker, and never flies when it can 

 escape by running or hiding in the dense grass of its home. On three 

 occasions I have heard what I am quite sure was the King Rail's call, 

 a loud, startling hup, hup, hup, hup, hup, uttered with increasing ra- 

 pidity until the syllables were barely distinguishable, then ending some- 

 what as it began. The whole performance occupied about five seconds. 



— 211. Rallus longirostris crepitans {Gmel.). Clapper Kail; 



Marsh Hen. (See Fig. 22, a.) .-It/.— Upper parts very pale greenish olive, 

 the feathers widely margined with gray ; wings and tail grayish brown ; 

 wing-coverts pale cinnamon, much washed with gray ; throat white ; neck 

 and breast pale, between ochraceous and cream-butf, more or less washed 

 with grayish; belly and sides gray or brownish gray, barred with Avhite. 

 Boiony Young— GVo^^y black. L., 14-50 ; W., 5-00 ; Tar., 2-00 ; B., 2-50. 



Remarlcs.—1\\Q. Clapper Kail may always be known from the King Kail 



