Vo l8 XVI l Allen > Recently Described North American Birds. 339 



Rallus crepitans waynei Brewster. 

 Wayne's Clapper Rail. 



Rallus crepitans waynei Brewster, N. Engl. Zool. Club, I, 50, June 9, 



1S99. 



" Subspecific characters. — Similar to R. crepitans, but the general 

 coloring much darker, the under parts with more ashy, the under tail 

 coverts with fewer markings. 



"Type, $ adult, no. 4220, collection of W. Brewster, St. Mary's, Camden 

 County, Georgia, March 18, 1878, W. Brewster. 



" Crown, nape, wings and tail, plain and rather pale seal brown ; wing 

 coverts, tertials, scapulars, upper tail coverts and feathers of the back 

 and rump, rich seal brown, narrowly bordered with ashy; throat, abdo- 

 men and a short stripe running from the base of the upper mandible to 

 above the eye, brownish white, the middle of the throat almost clear 

 white ; under tail coverts white with traces of dusky bars on a few of 

 the feathers ; flanks and crissum ashy brown with transverse bars of 

 white. Remainder of under parts, with sides of head and neck, ashy, 

 tinged with pale cinnamon on the breast. Axillars brown with narrow 

 transverse bars of white. 



" Wing, S-4°; tarsus, 2.15 ; arc of culmen from feathers, 2.48 [in.]. 

 " From Rallus crepitans, the form just described may be most readily 

 distinguished by the sharper contrast between the light and dark colors 

 of the back, the centers of the dorsal feathers being rich seal brown and 

 their edges bright ashy, whereas in crepitans the brown is pale and 

 somewhat olivaceous, and the ashy comparatively dull. Most of my 

 specimens also have much more ashy beneath than is found in any of the 

 examples of crepitans which I have seen, but this difference is not con- 

 stant. In the tendency to an excess of ashy on the under parts, and to a 

 scarcity or almost total absence of dark markings on the under tail cov- 

 erts, waynei agrees closely with scottii. It is so evidently a connecting 

 link between the latter and crepitans that it may well be doubted whether 

 scottii should continue to stand as a full species." 

 Type locality, St. Mary's, Camden County, Georgia. 

 Range, South Atlantic coast, from Virginia southward. 



Rallus levipes Bangs, 



Rallus levipes Bangs, Proc. N. Eng. Zool. Club, I, 45, June 5, 1899. 



" Characters. — Much smaller than either R. obsoletus or R. beldingi ; 

 bill much more slender; tarsus and foot smaller than in either. In 

 color it differs from R. obsoletus in being much darker above — more, 

 olive and less grayish, brown; in having breast and sides of neck deep 

 cinnamon-rufous instead of grayish cinnamon, this color extending 



