BIRDS OF KANSAS. 135 



HABITAT. North in the British possessions to Manitoba, but 

 chiefly within the United States, and west from the Mississippi 

 valley to the Pacific coast, south into central Mexico, and east- 

 ward along the Gulf coast to Florida and Georgia, breeding in 

 suitable localities nearly throughout its range. 



SP. CHAK. "Exactly like O. canadensis in plumage, but much larger in 

 size." 



Length, 40.00 to 48.00; wing, 21.00 to 22.50 (21.83); culmeu, 5.15 to 6.00 

 (5.47); depth of bill at base, .95 to 1.10 (1.01); tarsus, 9.90 to 10.65 (10.25); 

 middle toe, 3.40 to 3.60 (3.50); bare part of tarsus, 4.60 to 5.00 (4.78). (Ridgway.) 



These birds, in their habits, are similar to the Whooping, but 

 much more numerous. Their loud, modulating, sonorous croak 

 announces their presence, and is often heard during the night 

 as well as by day. 



During courtship and the early breeding season, their actions 

 and antics at times are ludicrous in the extreme, bowing and 

 leaping high in the air, hopping, skipping and circling about 

 with drooping wings and croaking whoop, an almost indescrib- 

 able dance and din, in which the females (an exception to the 

 rule) join, all working themselves up into a fever of excitement, 

 only equaled by an Indian war dance, and, like the same, it only 

 stops when the last one. is exhausted. 



Eggs two. A set collected May 25th, 1880, near Jamestown, 

 Dakota, from a nest on a marsh in a tall growth of rushes, a 

 level platform about three feet in diameter, made of flags, leaves 

 and rushes, are, in dimensions: 3.68x2.25, 3.82x2.40; ground 

 color pale olive buff, spotted and splashed with sepia brown and 

 purple shell stains, thickest at larger end; in form, elliptical oval. 



SUBORDER RALLI. RAILS, GALLINULES, COOTS, ETC. 



" Size small or medium; head normally feathered or with a frontal shield; 

 middle toe nearly as long as the tarsus; hallux well developed (nearly as long as 

 the first joint of the middle toe), nearly incumbent." 



FAMILY RALLIDJE. RAILS, GALLINULES AND COOTS. 



"Small or medium sized wading or swimming birds, with compressed body, 

 very long toes, which are sometimes (in the Coots) lobed along the edges, short, 

 rounded, concave wings, and very muscular thighs. 



"The brief diagnosis given above is sufficient to distinguish the Rails, of 

 whatever subfamily, fram the Courlans and Cranes, their only near allies. The 



