82 RAILS, GALLINULES, AND COOTS 



In the wild rice fields, I have frequently watched them walking 

 daintily over the leaves and floating stems, swimming across the nar- 

 row channels where they could not wade, and running in and out of 

 the thousand little trails that lead about under the grass ; and have 

 often clapped my hands to hear them answer back with their mock- 

 ing, cackling laugh. VERNON BAILEY. 



Subgenus Coturnicops. 

 215. Porzana noveboracensis (GmeL). YELLOW RAIL. 



Upper parts dark buff, mottled with brown and black, feathers of back 

 narrowly tipped with white in wavy cross-lines ; wing 

 dusky, with large white patch on secondaries ; throat 

 and breast plain buff or brownish ; middle of belly 

 whitish. Length : 6.00-7.75, wing 3.00-3.60, bill 

 Fig. 92. .50-.60, tarsus .80-100. 



Distribution. North America from Hudson Bay and Nova Scotia south 

 to Cuba, and west to Nevada and California. 



Nest. In marsh, made of dry grass. Eggs : 6 to 10, creamy buff, finely 

 specked with rusty brown. 



In habits the yellow rail is much like the Carolina, but may readily 

 be distinguished from it even on the wing by its smaller size and 

 white wing patch. It is never a common bird. 



Subgenus Creciscus. 

 216.1. Porzana coturniculus (Ridgw.). FARALLON BLACK RAIL. 



Adults. Upper parts blackish, finely speckled and barred with white, 

 patch on nape chestnut brown, color extending 

 to top of head, forehead slaty ; under parts 

 rich plumbeous, lower belly, flanks, and under 

 tail coverts barred with white. Young : white 

 restricted. Wing : 2.62, tarsus .79, culmen .54, Fi K- 93 - 



depth of bill at base of nostril .18. 



Distribution. Pacific coast of United States. Breeds in coast marshes 

 of California ; casual in Washington, Oregon, and Lower California. 



It was formerly supposed that the Farallon black rail had no 

 white markings on the back, but Mr. Brewster in his Notes on the 

 Black Rail of California (The Auk, vol. xxiv, p. 205, April, 1907) 

 has shown that the white markings vary with age and with the in- 

 dividual, and that those with the least white are the young. 



About twenty miles from the Farallones, on Point Reyes, it has 

 been found that the Farallon black rails occur in numbers in autumn. 



GENUS GALLINTJLA. 



219. Gallinula galeata (Licht.). FLORIDA GALLINULE. 



Toes long and slender, not lobed ; bill slender and sharp, nearly as long 



as head ; frontal shield extend- 

 ing from bill to crown, widest 

 posteriorly ; bill and shield 

 bright red. Adults in summer : 

 dark slaty or plumbeous, washed 



