BALL US NO VEB OR A CENSIS. 



YELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. 



[Plate XXVII. Fig. 2.] 



OaUinula novehoracensis, Lath. Ind. ii., p. 771, Sp. 16. — Fulica noveboracensit 

 Gmel. Sysf. I., p. 701, Sp. 15. — Rallus ruJicoUis, Vieill. Gal. Ois. ii., p. 168, pi. 

 266. (A bad figure.) — Rallus novehoracensis, Nob. Cat. Birds U. 8. Id. Syn. 

 Sp. 273. Id. Sp. comp. Sp. Phil. 212. — Perdixhudsonica? Lath. hid. ii., p. 655, 

 Sp. 41. — Le Rale vari^ a fjorge rousse, Vieill. Nouv. Diet, xviii., p. 556. — Yellow- 

 breasted Gallinvle, Lath. Syn. in., p. 262, Sp. 15. Id. Gen. Hist, ix., p, 419, Sp. 

 30. Penn. Arct. Zool. ii., Sp. 410. — Hiidsonian Quail? Lath. Ind. Orn. Suppl. 

 p. 224. Id. Gen. Hist. viii. p. 330, Sp. 72. 



The genus Rail, and that of the Gallinules, are so closely related, 

 that many authors have either confounded them together, or by their 

 various definitions and acceptations made them to interfere with each 

 other. Thus, for Latham, Temminck, and others, the Short-billed Rails, 

 among which ranks the present species, are Gallinules, although they 

 want that obvious character upon which Linn^ founded his natural, 

 though too much extended group Fulica, and which we also, with Vieillot 

 and others, adopt as its best representative character, namely, the 

 naked frontal clypeus. The genus Rail is therefore very comprehensive 

 and numerous in species, which are spread over all the globe, and may 

 with propriety be divided into two subgenera or gi-oups, the first of 

 which will contain the Long-billed species, under the more restricted 

 name of Rallus, containing the true RalU of all authors, whilst the 

 name Crex, or rather Porzana, or Oiiygometra, may be consecrated to 

 the Short-billed Rails, improperly ranked by authors with the Galli- 

 nules. I say rather Porzana or Ortygometra, because the name Crex 

 might be reserved for a secondary group, instituted for the Corn-crake 

 alone [Rallus crex, L.) an European bird, whose dry-land habits, so 

 different from those of its congeners, have, with apparent propriety, 

 induced Bechstein and others to elevate it to the rank of a full genus. 

 Its land habits are so peculiar, resembling more those of Gallinaceous 

 birds than of Waders, that notwithstanding a perfect similarity of con- 

 formation, we do not hesitate to grant it the distinction of a section for 

 itself, especially as we are at last, after a minute examination, able to 

 assign it a character drawn from the respective proportions of the toos 

 and tarsus. This is, however, the result of extraordinary pains. In 

 the Land Crake of Europe (and probably in a few analogous foreign 

 species) the middle toe without the nail is shorter than the tarsus, whilst 

 in the Water Crakes it is longer. The hind toe is also shorter and 



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