282 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



brown ; wing-coverts dull chestnut ; primaries dark brown, inner 

 secondaries and tail-feathers same as the back ; throat white ; 

 forepart and sides of the neck, with the breast, bright orange- 

 brown ; abdomen and sides of the body dark brown, faintly barred 

 with dark brown ; lower tail-coverts white, with a black spot near 

 the end ; the middle feathers black, barred with white. 



The Rallus elegans is well known to the Delaware rail-shooters as 

 the king-rail. They frequent the fresh-water marshes of the inte- 

 rior, and seem to feed upon similar food with the sora rails, as they 

 are generally found in the same localities. The red-breasted rail 

 is far more common in the South than it is to the eastward, being 

 seldom met with beyond the reedy shores of the river Delaware. 

 The specimen before us is a very beautiful one, and was obtained 

 while shooting soras below Chester last season. 



The flesh of the king-rail is very analogous to that of the sora, 

 perhaps not quite so delicate, but at times equally as juicy and 

 tender. The Rallus elegans affects fresh-water marshes only, never 

 being found on the seaboard; it penetrates far into the interior, 

 and has the same wild and skulking habits as the other variety ; 

 its flight is short and apparently labored, and it requires but a 

 slight " rap" to knock it over. This bird swims and dives, when 

 wounded, with great dexterity, and resorts to the same artifices to 

 conceal itself beneath the water as the sora rail. 



We shot one of these birds on an upland marsh in the midst of 

 a heavy wood, in the interior of Maryland, during the month of 

 July. * 



The king-rail is also known as the fresh-water marsh-hen, in 

 contradistinction to the clapper-rail, which is often spoken of aa 

 the "salt-water marsh-hen." 



