Plate LXIV. 



Fig. 7. RALLUS ELEG AN S. -Red-breasted Rail. 



The Red-breasted Rail is not an uncommon migrant in the spring and fall, at which times it is 

 found about marshes and ponds. In the summer it is less numerous by far than during the migrating 

 periods, but it breeds regularly throughout the State, in suitable swamps. I have several times found 

 the young in July nearly grown, and from this I infer the nesting time is June. But one brood is 

 probably reared during a season. 



LOCALITY : 



About Circleville this Rail builds in the small swampy ponds, places overgrown with saw-grass, 

 cat-tails, rushes, white lilies, and other aquatic plants, and presumably is to be found in similar localities 

 in other parts of the State. 



POSITION" : 



I have never found this nest containing eggs, but I have twice discovered nests which, identifying 

 by exclusion, undoubtly belonged to the Red-breasted Rail. These nests were situated on the ground a 

 little above the water level, and in every respect except size were like the nest of the Carolina Rail. 



MATERIALS : 



The nests referred to were composed of blades of grass, stalks of smart-weed, and bits of leaves and 

 fibres from neighboring plants. They were loosely put together, the materials being matted rather than 

 woven. Mr. Maynard, in "Birds of North America," says of the nest and eggs of this species: " Wests, 

 placed on the ground in marshy places, composed of grass, weeds, etc. Eggs, from eight to ten in 

 number, oval in form, bluish-white or creamy in color, dotted and spotted sparsely with reddish-brown 

 and lilac. Dimensions from 1.15 x 1.55 to 1.25 x 1.75." 



EGGS: 



It will be seen from the quotation above that eight to ten eggs constitute a full set. Six young- 

 birds are the most I have seen in any one brood. Eggs in my possession measure from 1.58 to 1.63 in 

 long-diameter, by from 1.18 to 1.25 in short-diameter. The common size is about 1.20 x 1.60. The 

 ground-color of the shell varies from bluish- or yellowish-white to a decided reddish or flesh tint. The 

 markings consist of blotches, spots, and speckles of umber, inclining to brown-madder or burnt sienna. 

 Many of the markings are beneath the surface, the color of these appearing of different tints, according 

 to their depth. The marks are never very numerous. Sometimes they are confined to the base chiefly, 

 sometimes to the point, but more frequently they are quite regularly distributed over the surface. In the 

 majority of eggs the ground-color is not very different from that of the egg of the Virginia Rail. 



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