THE BIRDS OF HAITI AND THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 131 



the arching mangrove roots. Of three taken two were prepared as 

 skins and one as a skeleton. 



Danforth in 1927 records them from Les Salines and Gonave 

 Island. They seem to be especially common along the northern 

 coast as Bond in 1928 found them particularly numerous on the 

 shores of the Baie de Caracol at Caracol and Jaquesy. He noted 

 them also at Port-au-Prince and Fort Liberte, but did not see them on 

 Gonave Island. Poole and Perrygo noted two at Cap-Ha'itien Janu- 

 ary 22, and collected four at Fort Liberte February 8, and 18, 1929. 



In most localities the clapper rail is shy and secretive so that its 

 presence is betrayed through its notes coming by day or night from 

 thickets or mangroves, or by its long-toed tracks, with long stride, 

 impressed in the soft mud of the runways leading through its haunts. 

 Its nocturnal activities we may only conjecture, though from the 

 light tracery of its foot prints it appears that under shadow of 

 night the bird comes out into the open. Ordinarily it is seen only 

 as a gray shadow slipping away among the mangrove roots, or more 

 rarely is flushed from some restricted corner where it is under neces- 

 sity of flying to gain new shelter. 



The clapper rail of Hispaniola differs from the bird of Jamaica, 

 R. I. caribaeus Bidgway, with which it has been ordinarily allocated, 

 in being grayer, less brownish both above and below, with the fore- 

 neck and upper breast more evidently cinnamon colored, and the 

 malar stripe, which is the same color, more prominent. In the 

 original description Wetmore 41 states that " there is decided varia- 

 tion in color in rails of this group, two distinct phases being evident, 

 one being paler above, due to predominance of the lighter edgings of 

 the dorsal feathers and restriction of the dark centers, and the other 

 decidedly darker with the duller colors of the central parts of the 

 dorsal feathers much extended, and the lighter margins correspond- 

 ingly restricted. The darker appearance of the extreme of the latter 

 type becomes much accentuated with plumage wear. The individual 

 differences indicated need to be kept carefully in mind in segregating 

 geographic races. 



" The Jamaican material before me in the present comparisons 

 includes the type of caribaeus and one other specimen in the United 

 States National Museum, and a third skin from the Museum of Com- 

 parative Zoology, loaned through the courtesy of Mr. Outram Bangs. 

 These birds are all old and are more or less faded, having been col- 

 lected in the sixth decade of the last century. In arriving at dif- 

 ferential characters to distinguish the Hispaniolan race due allow- 

 ance has been made for color change in the Jamaican series, 

 particularly through study of differences evident between these three 



tt Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 41, June 29, 1928, p. 122. 



