90 BIRDS OF ILLINOIS. 



Ballus elegans Aud. 



KING RAIL. 

 Popular synonyms. Eed-breasted Rail; Great Red-breasted Rail; Marsh Hen; Sedge 



Hen; Mud- hen. 

 Rallus crepitans WILS. Am. Orn. vii, 1813, pi. ti2, fig, 2 (fig. but not descr. Not R. crepitans 



GMEL.). (?) ALLEN, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. ill, 1872, 182 (Great Salt Lake, Utah). 1 

 Rallus elegans AUD. Orn. Biog. iii, 1835, 27, pi. 203; Synop. 1839,215; B. Am. v, 1842, IfiO, 

 pi. 30!. BAIKD, B. N. Am. 1858, 746; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, No. 552. COUES, Key, 1872, 

 273; Check List, 1873, No. 466; 2d ed. 1882, No. 676; Birds N. W. 1871, 535. RIDGW. 

 Norn. N. Am. B. 1881, No. 569; Man. N. Am. B. 1887, 138.-A. O. U. Check List. 1886, 

 No. 208. 



HAB. Fresh- water marshes of the Eastern Province of the United States, north, casu- 

 ally, to Massachusetts, Maine, and Ontario, regularly to the Middle States and northern 

 Illinois; west to Kansas (Great Salt .Lake, ALLEN?*). Replaced in the salt marshes along 

 the Atlantic and GuM coasts by representative forms of R. crepitans. 



SP. CHAB. Adult: Above, yellowish olive or ochraceous-drab, very conspicuously and 

 sharply striped with black; crown dark brown; asupraloral streak of brownish white, con- 

 tinued to the occiput in a broader stripe of brownish gray; lores and suborbital region 

 brownish gray or dull brownish; chin and throat white; remainder of head and neck, in- 

 cluding chest and breast, light cinnamon; flanks and sides dark brownish or blackish 

 dusky, barred with white, the white bars averaging about .10-.15 of an inch in width, the in- 

 terspaces more than twice as wide ; crissum mixed dusky and white, the lateral feathers 

 almost immaculate white; middle of the abdomen considerably lighter than the breast, 

 sometimes quite white; axillars and lining of the wing similar to the flanks, but white bars 

 narrower, and less distinct Wing-coverts rusty brownish, sometimes inclining to chest- 

 nut, and not infrequently more or less barred with reddish white; tertials widely striped, 

 jike the scapulars: remiges plain umber brown; rectrices raw- umber, with a dusky medial 

 stripe. "Lower mandible and edges of upper brownish yellow; ridge of upper, and tips ot 

 both, deep brown; iris bright red; feet yellowish brown, tinged with olive; claws of the 

 same color" (AUDUBON). Downy young: Uniform glossy black ; bill dusky, the end, and in- 

 complete wide band near the base (enclosing the nostril), pale yellowish or whitish (in the 

 skin) ; legs and feet brownish (in skin). 



Total length, about 17 inches; wing, 5.90-6.80; culmen, 2.12-2.50; depth of bill in middle, 

 .27-.35; tarsus, 2.20-2.40; middle toe, 1.80-2.10. 



The individual variation in this species is very considerable, 

 both as regards coloration and the proportions; but it may 

 always be readily distinguished from the allied forms by the 

 characters pointed out above, the very conspicuous, sharply- 

 defined, and broad black stripes above, upon an ochrey brown 

 or yellowish olivaceous ground-color, combined with the cinna- 

 mon breast and dark flanks, being the prominent distinctive 

 features. The chief variation in colors consists in the degree of 

 ashiness on the side of the head (some examples being distinctly 

 ashy, as in most specimens of R. cr&pitans), and in the precise 

 shade of the ground-color of the upper parts, which, however, is 

 never ashy. 



1 May possibly be R. obsoletus. 



8 No specimens seen: may possibly be R. obsoletus. 



