138 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



§. Bill under 1.75. 

 ?. Wing over 6.25. 



a'. General cast of plumage bluish, feet yellow. Purple Gal- 



linule. 

 a*. General cast of plumage slaty, feet greenish. Florida 

 Gallinule. 

 ??. Wing under 6.25. 



a'. Wing over 5.00. Corn Crake, 

 a'. Wing under 5.00. 

 b'. Bill over 1.00. Virginia Rail, 

 b*. Bill under 1.00. Sora Rail. 

 §§. Bill over 1.75. 



a'. Upper parts of a general brownish color, distinctly striped 

 with brownish black ; cheek below eye cinnamon rufous. 

 King Rail, 

 a'''. Upper parts of a general grayish color with indistinct 

 stripes of black or no stripes; cheek below eye gray. 

 Clapper Rail. 



Subfamily RALLINtE. Rails. 

 Genus RALLUS Linnaeus. 



208. Rallus elegans Aud. King Rail; Royal Rail; Marsh 



Hen. 



Plumage: above olive brown, distinctly striped with brownish black; 

 feathers of the scapulars margined with olive gray ; wing coverts rufous ; 

 cheek below eye cinnamon rufous ; throat whitish ; belly and flanks fuscous, 

 rather widely barred with white; wing coverts, neck and breast rufous. 

 Wing 6.00 to 7.00 ; culmen 2.30 ; tarsus 2.25. 



Geog. Dist. — Eastern North America, breeding north to Connecticut, 

 Illinois and Kansas ; casually straying to Ontario, Massachusetts and Maine ; 

 winters from Virginia southward. 



County Records.— Cumberland ; taken at Scarborough, (Brown, B. N. 0. 

 C. 7, p. 60) ; one shot at Falmouth, September 19, 1895, by Walter Rich, 

 (Brock, Auk 13, p. 60) ; one taken at Dyke Marsh, near Portland, December 

 17, 1898, (Brock, Auk. 13, p. 79) ; two in fall of 1900 near Portland, (Lord) ; 

 to which Mr. Brown writes can probably be added the specimens recorded by 

 him as Clapper Rails, (Cf. Brown B. N. 0. C. 4, p. 108 and C. B. P., p. 30, also 

 withdrawal of same in Auk, 1907, p. 95 so that the whole fabric is now 

 merely a guess). 



This species occasionally straggles north to Cumberland 



County where all our specimens seem to have been taken in 



the marshes near Portland. It is primarily a species of the 



