446 



RAIL-TRIBE. 



their extinction is but a matter of time. The chief characteristics of these birds 

 are their long legs, elongated toes, loose and rather hairy plumage, feeble, rounded 

 wings, and short tail. The body is generally narrow and laterally compressed, 

 enabling them to thread their way among the reeds and grasses with great ease 

 and rapidity ; while the neck is long, and the head small, with a long or moderate 

 bill. A large number of genera, including nearly 180 species, comprise the family, 

 but space will only permit mention of some of the more important types. 



True Rails. 



MALE AND FEMALE CAROLINA KAILS. 



The typical genus, including such well-known forms as the 

 common water-rail (Rallus aquations), is characterised by the beak 

 being longer than the third toe and claw, with the nostrils nearer the feathers at 

 the base than the anterior end of the nasal groove. In all the other genera 

 mentioned below the bill is shorter than the middle toe and claw. The clapper- 

 rail (R. longirostris) is a well-known North American form, with the general 

 colour above ashy grey streaked with blackish brown, the chin and throat white, 

 fore-neck ashy brown, shading into isabelline on the chest and upper-breast, and 

 into whitish on the under-parts, the flanks being barred with greyish brown and 

 white. This bird is a resident in many of the south-eastern United States, but 

 only met with in the salt-marshes near the Atlantic, unless driven in-shore by high 



