THE BLACK RAIL. Ast 
No. 201. 
BLACK RAIL. 
A. O. U. No. 216. Porzana jamaicensis (Gmel.). 
Synonym.—LitTtLe BLAcK Ratt. 
Description — Adult: Head, breast, and upper belly blackish slate, darker 
on crown; a large patch on hind-neck dark chestnut ; remaining plumage brownish 
black sprinkled sparingly, except on wing-quills, with small white spots and bars; 
bill black. Jimmatwre: Similar to adult but lighter on breast, whitening on 
throat, shaded with chestnut on hind crown. Downy young: “Entirely bluish 
black.” Length 5.00-6.00 (127.-152.4); wing 2.70 (68.6) ; tail 1.23 (31.2); bill 
57 (1.45); tarsus .78 (19.8) ; middle toe and claw .95 (24.1). 
Recognition Marks.—Warbler size, but appearing Sparrow size. Marsh- 
haunting habits; diminutive size and dark coloration distinctive. 
Nesting.—Not known to breed in Ohio. Nest, of the finer grasses lining a 
cup-shaped depression in ground of marsh. Eggs, 9-10, white or creamy white, 
sparingly sprinkled with dots of reddish brown, more heavily about the larger end. 
Av. size, 1.00 x .80 (25.4 x 20.3). 
General Range.—Temperate North America north to Massachusetts, north- 
ern Illinois, and Oregon; scuth to West Indies and Guatemala. 
Range in Ohio.—Very rare. Positive records from Hamilton and Lake 
Counties. 
SECRETIVENESS is conceded to be the most striking characteristic 
of the Rails as a group, and there can be no question that this little midget 
possesses the quality in a superlative degree. ‘‘About as difficult to observe 
as a field mouse,” says Mr. Chapman, with this difference, however, that the 
field mouse is some thousands of times more numerous. Looking for a 
needle in a haystack is not such a forlorn quest, after all. The writer onc¢ 
found at the bottom of a hay-mow in spring a fountain pen, which he remem- 
bered having lost on a load of hay in the meadow the previous summer— 
but when the needle is endowed with life, and is bent on concealment, the 
task is well nigh hopeless. Under favorable conditions, however, where 
cover is limited, or occurs in scattered bunches, the Black Rail may be flushed 
from covert to covert. In Jamaica, where the birds have been more fully 
studied than elsewhere, an informant of Mr. Gosse told him that several 
were killed accidentally by the negroes at work, as the bird is so foolish as to 
hide its head in the presence of danger, cock up its rump, and imagine itself 
safe. Another authority, a Mr. March, likened its cry to the syllables 
chi-chi-cro-croo-croo, ‘‘several times repeated in sharp, high-toned notes, 
so as to be audible to a considerable distance.” 
No accounts have been published of the nesting of the bird in Ohio 
(where, indeed, it has been seen only three or four times), but they have 
been found breeding in the Calumet marshes of northern Illinois, and there 
