134 BULLETIN 15 5, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



This tiny rail is found in the aquatic growths of freshwater 

 marshes where it is so secretive that it is probably much more com- 

 mon than the few records given indicate. In its marshy haunt the 

 collector seldom penetrates and the rail remains hidden securely 

 unless startled. Thomas Barbour in Cuba secured a number by 

 beating their coverts with a long bamboo, thus frightening the birds 

 into flight, when they could be seen and shot, an artifice that will 

 merit attention from collectors who visit the haunts of this bird. 



The yellow-bellied rail of Cuba and Jamaica is now designated 

 as Porzana flaviventer gossii (Bonaparte). The three seen from 

 Haiti are similar in color to gossii but are very slightly smaller. 

 The wing in gossii ranges from 65.1 to 71.4 mm. with an average of 

 67 mm., while the culmen measures from 16.2 to 17.9 mm. In the 

 three birds from Hispaniola one male has the wing 62.0 and the cul- 

 men 15.9 mm., while two females have the wing 63.1-63.5 and the 

 culmen 14.6-16.3 mm. The difference is so slight that it may prove 

 inconstant, in which case hendersoni will become a synonym of 

 gossii, which will then range throughout the Greater Antilles. 43 



We have considered the characters alleged for Hapalocreco, pro- 

 posed by Mr. Kidgway 44 to receive the present species, but fail to 

 find them in our opinion sufficiently distinct to merit recognition 

 when compared with other species of the group usually designated 

 as Porzana. The combined length of the first two joints of the 

 middle toe is in most specimens of -flaviventer not quite as long as 

 the tarsus, instead of equalling that measurement as stated, the 

 proportion being almost the same in other species of Porzana when 

 due allowance is made for size. The length of the alula and other 

 items in a larger series than originally available to Ridgway do not 

 seem diagnostic. 



With the general form of the sora, the yellow-bellied rail is char- 

 acterized by tiny size as it is but little larger than a sparrow. It is 

 whitish below with a wash of buff on the breast, and heavy bars of 

 black on the flanks and under tail coverts. Above it is deep buff and 

 black, streaked with white with a dusky gray crown. 



Subfamily Gallinulinae 



IONORNIS MARTINICUS (Linnaeus) 



PURPLE GALLINUXE, GALLARETA, GALLINA DE AGUA, POTTLE SULTANE, 

 ANGOII, POULE-A-JOLI, JORDELLE 



Fulica martinica Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, vol. 1, 176G, p. 259 (Marti- 

 nique). 



Calamon, Oviedo, Hist. Gen. Nat. Indias, Libr. 14, Cap. 2, Reprint, Madrid, 

 1851, p. 442 (mentioned). 



13 For more detailed discussion of the supposed races of this species see Wetmore, New 

 York Acad. Sci., Sci. Surv. Porto Rico and Virgin Islands, vol. 9, 1027, pp. 338-339. 

 ** Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 72, no. 4, Dec. 6, 1920, p. 3. 



