RALLID.K — TlIK RAILS — RALLUS. 357 



Comijared witli tlu' larger species {Ii. lomjirostris, with its races, R. cLeguns aud 

 E. obsoletus), it is difficult to say to which this Rail is most uearly related. None of the 

 forms of E. lotif/irostris, however, need close eomparisou, the darkest-eolored race of 

 that species (A*, lomjirostris saturatus, from Louisiana) having broader black stripes 

 and a very different (ash-gray) ground-color above ; the breast, etc., a very nuu-h duller 

 and lighter cinnanuin, and the flank-bars broader and on a uniform ground-color. E. 

 ohsoli'tus agrees best in the coloration of the upper parts, which, however, in all speci- 

 nipus (iuchuliug one from San (^uentin Bay, on the western side of Lower California) 

 have a lighttn-, and in some a decidedly grayer, ground-color ; but the white? flank- 

 bars are much broader, with nnicolored interspaces, the breast very conspicuously 

 paler, aud the size considerably greater. E. elegans has also the breast paler, the 

 ground-color of the upper parts a lighter and much more yellowish olive, and the 

 black stripes much more sharply delined. Upon the whole, I see no other way than 

 to consider the specimen in question as representing a very distinct sjiecies or local 

 race, which I take great pleasm-e in naming after its collector. 



[Note. — Since the above was written, the National Mtiseimi has received two additional speci- 

 mens, a male and a female, collected liy Mr. Belding at La Paz in January, 188:5. These agree 

 closely with the type, from Espiritu Santo Island, thus fully establishing the validity of the 

 species.] 



Rallus obsoletus. 



THE CALIFORNIA CLAPPER RAIL. 



? Rallus elegans. Coop. & Suckl. Pacific E. R. Ke]>. XII. ii. 1860, 246 (Washington Ten-.). 

 Rallus dcfjans, var. obsoletus, Uidgw. Am. Nat. VIII. 1874, 111. — CoUES, Check List, Aiip.1873,137, 



no. 466 a. 

 Rallus elegans, b. obsoletus, CoUEs, Birds N. W. 1874, 535. 

 Rallus obsoletus, EiDGW. Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, V. no. 3, July, 1880, 139 ; Norn. N. Am. B. 1881, 



no. 570. 

 Rallus Imigiroslris obsolcliis, CouEs, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, no. 674. 



Hab. Salt-marshes of the Pacific coast, south to San Quentin Bav, Lower California, north to 

 Washington Territory (?). 



Sp. Char. Adult : Ahove, .i,'rayish olivaceous, indistinctly striped with brownish black ; crown 

 and nape brownish dusky ; a light l)rown supraloral stripe ; lores and suborbital re.ijion dusky 

 brownish ; chin and throat white ; rest of head and neck, with jugulum and breast, light ciima- 

 inon, as in R. elegans; flanks and sides grayish brown, with narrow bars of white (bars about 

 .08-.I0 of an inch wide, the interspaces .20 to .30) ; axillars and lining of wing similar, but darker, 

 the white bars narrower ; anal region and middle of abdomen plain pale huff ; crissum brown or 

 dusky, barred with white, the lateral feathers nearly immaculate white. Wing-coverts umber- 

 brown ; remiges plain dusky ; rectrices grayish olive, obsoletely dusky centrally. Dovmtf yowirj : 

 Uniform glos.sy black ; bill black and whitish (the latter on end and around nostril). 



Total length, about 17.00-18.00 inclies ; wing, 6.40-6.60 ; cuhnen, 2.25-2 50 ; least depth of 

 bill (through middle), .32-.35 ; tarsus, 2.10-2.25; middle toe, 2.00-2.15. 



The Salt-water Marsh-hen of the Pacific coast differs from that of the Atlantic seaboard in the 

 more olivaceous upper parts, with very distinct dusky stripes, and decided cinnamon-color of the 

 breast, in which respects it approaches the Fresh-water species (R. elef/ans), the resemblance to 

 which is so great in the last respect that the bird was oriidnally described as a variety of R. elegans. 

 The colors and markings of the flanks, however, as well as its pecidiar habitat, prove its relation- 

 ship to be rather with R. loyigirostris. We here treat it as an independent species, for the reason 

 that it is isolated geographically from any of the races of R. longirostris, while it may also always 

 be distinguished by its peculiar colors and proportions. 



