EALLIDiE — THE RAILS — RALLUS. 



353 



Rallus elegans. 



THE KING KAIL; GREAT RED-BREASTED RAIL. 



a. elegans. 



Eallns crepitans, Wii.s. Am. Orn. VII. 1813, pi. 62, tig. 2 (fig. but not descr. Not R. crepitam, 

 Gmel.). — (?) Allen, Bull. Mils. Comp. Zool. III. 1872, 182 (Great Salt Lake, Utali).i 



Malhis elegans, AuD. Orn. Biog. HI. 1835, 27, pi. 203 ; Syuop. 1839, 215 ; B. Am. V. 1842, 160, 

 pi. 309. — Baird, B. N. Am. 1858, 746 ; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 552. — CouES, Key, 1872, 

 273 ; Check List, 1873, no. 466 ; 2d ed. 1882, no. 676 ; Birds N. "VV. 1874, 535. — Ridgw. 

 Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 569. 



b. tenuirostris. 



Rallus elegans, var. tenuirostris, Lawr. Am. Nat. Feb. 1874, 111 (City of Mexico). — Ridgw. Bull. 

 Nutt. Orn. Club, V. no. 3, July, 1880, 139. 



Hab. Fresh-water marshes of the Eastern Province of the United States, north, casually, to 

 Massachusetts, Maine, and Canada West, regularly to the Middle States and Northern Illinois ; 

 west to Kansas (Great Salt Lake, Ai.len ? -). Replaced in the salt-marshes along the Atlantic 

 and Gulf coasts by representative I'ornis of E. longirostris. 



Sp. Char. Adult : Above, yellowish olive or ochraceous-drab, very conspicuously and sharply 

 striped with black ; crown dark brown ; a supraloral streak of brownish white, continued to the 

 occiput in a broader stripe of brownish gray ; lores and suborbital region brownish gray or dull 

 brownish; chin and tliroat white ; remainder of head and neck, including jugnlum and breast, 



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

 bars averaging about .10-15 of an inch in width, the interspaces more than twice as wide ; crissum 

 mixed dusky and wliite, the lateral feathers almost immaculate white ; middle of the abdomen 

 considerably lighter than the brea-st, sometimes quite white ; axillars and lining of the wing similar 

 to the flanks, but white bars narrower, and less distinct. Wing-coverts rusty brownish, sometimes 

 inclining to chestnut, and not infrec^uently more or less barred with reddish white ; tertials widely 

 striped, like the scapulars ; remiges plain uniber-brown ; rectrices raw-umber, with a dusky medial 

 stripe. "Lower mandible and edges of upper brownish yellow ; ridge of upper, and tips of both, 

 deep brown ; iris bright red ; feet yellowish brown, tinged with olive ; claws of the same color" 

 (Audobon). Downy young : Uniform glossy black; bill dusky, the end, and incomplete wide 

 band near the base (enclosing the nostril), pale yellowish or whitish (in the skin) ; legs and feet 

 brownish (in skin). 



Total length, about 17 inches; wing, .').9()-6.80 ; culmen, 2.12-2.50; depth of bill in middle. 

 .27-.35 ; tarsus, 2.2O-2.40 ; middle toe, 1.80-2.10. 



The individual variation in this species is very considerable, both as regards coloration and the 

 proportions ; but it may always be readily distinguished from the allied forms by the characters 



4.5 



' May possilily be R. obsoletus. 



- No speuimcns seen ; may possibly be obsoletus. 



