THE BLACK RAIL. 451 



No. 201. 

 BLACK RAIL. 



A. O. U. No. 216. Porzana jamaicensis (Gmel.). 



Synonym. LITTLE BLACK RAIL. 



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. Immature: Similar to adult but lighter on breast, whitening on 

 throat, shaded with chestnut on hind crown. Dozvny young : "Entirely bluish 

 black." Length 5.00-6.00 (i2^.-i^2.^~) ; 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, i. oo x .80 (25.4 x 20.3). 



General Range. Temperate North America north to Massachusetts, north- 

 ern Illinois, and Oregon ; south 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 once, 

 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 syllable 5 

 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 



