206 Brewster, Notes on the Black Rail of California. \ji\ni\ 



being "without white specks." As no additional specimens at all 

 closely resembling the type have since been reported and as the 

 surf -swept Farallones possess no marshes and are otherwise wholly 

 unsuited for the abiding place of any species of Rail, it has come 

 to be questioned if Mr. Ridgway's bird was really taken there — 

 or indeed anywhere in North America. Until very recently Little 

 Black Rails from whatever locality have been so very rare in col- 

 lections that it has been impossible to bring together a sufficient 

 number of them to show the general range of individual, seasonal 

 and geographical variation to which the species is subject. For 

 this reason the status as well as the habitat of the form coturniculus 

 has remained involved in much doubt. 



Within the past few years, however, Black Rails which thus far 

 have been called jamaicensis have been found abundantly in a few 

 localities on or near the coast of California whence I have received 

 no less than twenty-six of their skins, of which twenty-two were 

 collected by Mr. C. A. Allen at Point Reyes. On comparing these 

 specimens with a somewhat smaller number taken east of the 

 Rocky Mountains I have become convinced that the Black Rail of 

 California is at least subspecifically distinct from that of the eastern 

 United States. The latter has always been regarded as true 

 jamaicensis, a ruling which I have no present disposition to challenge, 

 for the only specimen that I have seen from the type locality of the 

 species, Jamaica, appears to differ from the bird of the Atlantic 

 coast region of North America only in having decidedly shorter 

 wings, while it is probable that these were much longer originally, 

 for the tips of the primaries are ragged and apparently rather badly 

 w r orn. 



The type of coturniculus has been considered remarkable for 

 its diminutive size, for the extreme attenuation of its bill and for 

 the sparseness — or rather restriction — of the white spotting on its 

 upper parts. Although its back has been described as "without 

 white specks" I have found a very few of them scattered among 

 the interscapular feathers, and they are numerous and rather 

 conspicuous on some of the scapulars and upper tail coverts. It 

 would be more accurate, therefore, to say that the central portion 

 of the back are so slightly spotted as to appear almost immaculate. 

 In this respect, as Mr. Ridgway has pointed out (Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Mus. XIII, 1890, 311), the type of coturniculus resembles P. 



