572 SORA RAIL. 



and the crest perfectly similar. In the Rails, Gallinules, and Coots, 

 the innutritions part of the food, whether fragments of shells, or husks 

 of seeds, passes into the intestine, not being ejected by vomiting, in 

 which respect the birds of this family are analogous to the Gallinace- 

 ous group, of which the coeca attain the maximum size, while in the 

 Rails and Gallinules these organs are next in development. It is not 

 merely a vague and distant analogy that the Ballince thus present to 

 the Gallinaceous birds, but a direct gradation, insomuch that they 

 might with more propriety be considered as the aquatic group of the 

 Rasores, the Coots forming the extreme part of the series, 



I found this species exceedingly abundant, and breeding along the 

 shores of the Gulf of Mexico, from the mouth of the Mississippi to Gal- 

 veston Island, in the Texas. 



SORA RAIL. 

 Rallus carolinus, Linn. 



PLATE CCXXXIII. Vol. III. p. 251. 



In an adult male preserved in spirits, the mouth is very narrow, its 

 width being only 3 twelfths ; there are on the palate two longitudi- 

 nal ridges destitute of papillae, and anteriorly two elevated lines run- 

 ning to the point of the mandible. The tongue is 7^ twelfths long, 

 emarginate and papillate at the base, flat above, with the point narrow, 

 but rounded and thin-edged. The cesophagus 3 inches 9 twelfths long, 

 uniformly 4 twelfths in width. The stomach is a very large trans- 

 versely elliptical gizzard, 1 inch long, 1 inch 4^ twelfths in breadth, 

 and placed obliquely ; its lateral muscles very large, the left 7 twelfths 

 thick, the right 6 twelfths ; the tendons very large, covering nearly the 

 whole surface ; the lower muscle narrow but prominent ; the epithe- 

 lium dense, tough, with two elliptical concave grinding surfaces. The 

 contents of the stomach are numerous particles of quartz, with vege- 

 table fibres, and seeds of grasses. The proventriculus is oblong, with 

 a belt of glands ^ inch in breadth. The lobes of the li>'er are nearly 



