No. 86.] BIRD NAMES. 129 



extent thirteen and a quarter to thirteen and three quarter 

 inches ; the bill, measured along its side, one and a quarter to 

 one and a half inches. 



Found here and there all along the coast, but met with 

 oftener farther inland; a bird of the reedy swamp or marsh 

 grass ; widely distributed, but nowhere very numerous ; though, 

 perhaps, sometimes found fat, it has never been my luck to kill 

 one that was not in a rather emaciated condition. I will add 

 (as Mr. Sheppard has not shown the feet in his picture) that this 

 bird's toes are free, like those of our other rails ; that is to say, 

 they are without webs or membranous attachments of any kind. 



VIRGINIA RAIL: LITTLE RED-BREASTED RAIL: Wilson says, 

 1813 : " Known to some of the inhabitants along the sea-coast 

 of New Jersey by the name of the FRESH-WATER MUD-HEN :" 

 Nuttall, 1834, calls it LESSER CLAPPER RAIL and SMALL MUD- 

 HEN: Giraud, in Birds of Long Island, 1S44, speaks of its being 

 " known to gunners and sportsmen " as FRESH-WATER MARSH- 

 HEN (a name more commonly applied to No. 34). The late 

 C. S. Westcott (" Homo ") describing " Rail Shooting on the 

 Delaware" Forest and Stream, Jan. 1, 1874 terms it RED 

 RAIL, and states " that where fifty soras " (species No. 37) " are 

 killed, but one or two red rails are boated." 



In the vicinity of Salem, Mass., it is distinguished from the 

 common rail, No. 37, As LONG-BILLED RAIL, but in most locali- 

 ties, in spite of longer bill, etc., it is loosely classed by gunners 

 and marketmen with No. 37, under one of the latter's common 

 names ; the difference between the species, however, being over- 

 looked rather than unobserved. 



