162 SENNETT on the Clapper Rails. [April 
it undescribed at the time, taking for a settled fact that crepztans 
and loxgtrostrés were the same ; if the Bahia bird is to take the 
name of longvrostris, it being certainly distinct from crepztans, 
the latter name must be restored to full specific rank.” 
Mr. Lawrence’s Bahia bird is now in the possession of the 
American Museum of New York and is simiJar to a Cayenne 
longtrostré¢s in the National Museum of Washington, and to those 
in the collection of Messrs. Godman and Salvin. 
In “Bull Nutt. Orn. Club, july, TsSo Viel Vip i4onsy lie 
Ridgway makes crefztavs a subspecies of loxgtrostr¢s along 
with two new varieties, viz., carzbeus and saturatus, revising 
his elegans var. obsoletus (Am. Nat., 1874, p. 111) by raising 
it to the rank of a species, Aallus obsoletus. Mr. Ridgway’s 
conclusions were pretty generally accepted by American orni- 
thologists and the United States species were incorporated in the 
A. O. U. Check-List of 1886. 
Since the papers above mentioned were written we have done 
more systematic and thorough work in field ornithology in the 
Untited States than had been previously accomplished. As a re- 
sult of this field work an immense amount of material, including 
Clapper Rails, has been added to our collections, both public and 
private. No larger series of these wary birds has ever been brought 
to our notice from any special source than that collected by Mr. 
W.E. D. Scott at Tarpon Springs, Florida, from the fall of 1886 
to the summer of 1888. During this time Mr. Scott collected 
more than one hundred and twenty specimens, old and young, 
taken in every month of the year. Of this large series all but a 
few are the new Rail which I very briefly described in ‘The Auk’ 
of July, 1888, p. 305, as Rallus longtrostris scottiz. Mr. Scott 
was on the point of working up this dark Rail when he learned 
that I intended to determine certain Texas examples of Rails, 
and he kindly sent me his material with the request that the 
types go to the American Museum of New York. 
A more careful study of all the forms leads me to believe that 
any ornithologist familiar with the Rails of the United States can 
readily separate the fresh water or King Rails of the elegans 
group from the salt water or Clapper Rails of the dong7rostris 
group. Now, given a hundred or more examples of the various 
Clapper Rails of the United States and the West Indies indis- 
criminately mixed together, I think there would be no question 
