2 gn i tet eet La 
ARN 
274 RALLIDZ, RAILS, ETC.— GEN. 242. 
crissum rufescent. Adult with the face and central line of throat black, the 
rest of the throat, line over eye, and especially the breast, more or less 
intensely slate-gray, the sides of the breast usually 
with some obsolete whitish barring and speckling ; 
young without this black, the throat whitish, the 
breast brown. Length 8-9; wing 4-44; tail about 
2; bill 3-2; tarsus 14; middle toe and claw 1%. 
Temperate N. Am., exceedingly abundant during 
— = the migration in the reedy swamps of the Atlantic 
Fig. 179. Carolina Rail. states. WILs., vi, 27, pl. 48, f. 1; Nurr., ii, 209; 
Aup., Vv, 145; —pl. 306;0CAsssin Bdesn4 950 es . . CAROLINA. 
Yellow Rail. Above, varied with biadkieh and ochr enon and thickly 
marked with narrow white semicircles and transverse bars; below, pale 
ochrey-brown, fading on the belly, deepest on the breast, where many 
feathers are dark-tipped; flanks dark with numerous white bars; crissum 
varied with black, white and rufous. Small, about 6 long; wing 34; tail 13; 
bill $; tarsus $; middle toe and claw 14. Eastern N. Am., not abundant. 
Bonap., Am. Orn. iv, 136, pl. 27, f. 2; Sw. and Ricu., Fn. B.-A. ii, 402; 
Norr., ii, 215; Aup., v, 152, pl. 307; Cass. in Bp., 750. NOVEBORACENSIS. 
Black Fail. Blackish; head and under parts dark slaty, paler or 
whitening on the throat; above, speckled with white, the cervix and upper 
back varied with dark chestnut; lower belly, crissum, flanks and axillars, 
white-barred ; quills with white spots. Very small; about 54; wing 23-3; 
tail 14; tarsus #. S. and Cent. Am. and West Indies; rarely observed in 
the U. S, Washington, D. C., (Cowes and Prentiss) ; Kansas, (Allen). 
AUDs V5 lOve plo08!s CASS: In Bp. (490 ey cial. ied eee ANC ALORINGIS 
242. Genus CREX Bechstein. 
Corn Crake. Yellowish-brown, varied with black; below, cinereous- 
whitish, palest on the throat and belly ; wings extensively rufous both above 
and below; flanks and crissum barred with the same; 10-11; wing 54-6; 
tail 2; bill 1; tarsus 13. Europe; Greenland; accidentally on the Atlantic 
Coast, U.S. Cass., Proc. Phila. Acad. 1855, 265 (New Jersey), and in 
Bp., (ol; Bamp, Am. Journ. Sci. 1866, xli, 25. == = = 5 = PRATENSISe 
Subfamily GALLINULINE.  Gallinules. 
Forehead shielded by a broad, bare, horny plate, a prolongation and expansion 
of the culmen. Bill otherwise much as in the shorter-billed rails, like Porzana ; 
general form much the same, though the body is not so compressed; toes slender, 
simple or slightly margined. The two following genera differ considerably, and 
each becomes the type of a subfamily with those who elevate the gallinules to the 
rank of a family; but this does not seem to be required. In Gallinula, the nostrils 
are linear, and the toes have an evident marginal membrane. Porphyrio (not ‘‘ Por- 
phyrula”) has broadly oval nostrils and no obvious digital membranes; the legs 
are notably longer, with shorter toes; the bill is thicker, ete. There are about 
thirty species of gallinules, of various parts of the world. 
