136 HISTORY OF THE 



typical Rails (Rattinm) are of very small to medium size, the typical genus (Ral- 

 lus) being characterized particularly by a lengthened, slender bill, while other 

 genera, Porzana and Crex, have this member comparatively short and thick. 

 The Coots and Gallinules have the base of the culmen continued upon the fore- 

 head, where, it widens out into a more or less gibbous or expanded plate or 

 frontal shield. The Coots, however, are peculiar in having the toes fringed 

 with scalloped flaps or lateral lobes." 



SUBFAMILY RALLINJE. KAILS. 



"No frontal process; toes without lateral lobes; size variable; bill sometimes 

 much elongated." 



GENUS EALLUS LINN^US. 



"Bill longer than the head, rather slender, compressed; upper mandible 

 slightly curved; nostrils in a long groove, and with a large membrane; wings 

 short; tertiary quills long, frequently longer than primaries; tail very short, 

 legs moderate; tarsus shorter than middle toe, aud covered on all sides with 

 transverse scales; toes long and rather slender; inner toe rather shorter than 

 the outer; hind toe short and weak. 



"This genus contains numerous species, inhabiting all the temperate coun- 

 'tries of the world, and very similar in their habits, and frequently in appear- 

 ance. Their long toes enable them to run over and climb among aquatic plants 

 with great facility." 



Rallus elegans AUD. 



KING RAIL. 

 PLATE X. 



Summer resident; common in suitable localities throughout 

 the State. Arrive the first to middle of April; begin laying 

 about the middle of May; return by the last of October. 



B. 542. R. 569. C. 676. G. 267, 62. U. 208. 



HABITAT. Fresh water marshes of the eastern, southern and 

 middle United States, west into Colorado, north casually to 

 Maine, Canada West, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Dakota. 



SP. CHAR. "Adult: Above, yellowish olive or ochraceous drab, very con- 

 spicuously and sharply striped with black; crown dark brown; a supraloral 

 streak of brownish white continued to the occiput in a broader stripe of brown- 

 ish gray; lores and suborbital region brownish gray, or dull brownish; chin and 

 throat white; remainder of head and neck, including jugulum and breast, light 

 cinnamon; flanks and sides dark brownish or blackish dusky barred with white, 

 the white bars averaging about .10 to .15 of an inch in width, the interspaces 

 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 wiug similar to the 

 flanks, but white bars narrower aud less distinct. Wing coverts rusty brown- 

 ish, sometimes inclining to chestnut, and not infrequently more or less barred 



