670 SYSTEMA TIG SYNOPSIS. — ALECTOMIBES— BALLIFOBMES. 



with ease the mazes of the reedy marshes to which they are almost exclusively confined : 

 whUe by means of their long toes they are prevented from sinking in the mire or the filiating 

 vegetation. The wings are never long and pointed as among LimicoUe, being in fact of the 

 shortest, most rounded and concave form found among waders ; and the flight is rarely pro- 

 tracted to any great distance. The tail is always very short, generally of 10 or 12 soft 

 feathers. Details of the bill and feet vary with the genera ; but the former is never sensitive 

 at the tip, and the latter have the hallux longer and lower down than it is in the shore-hirds. 

 The nostrils are pervious, of variable shape. The head is completely feathered ; the general 

 plumage is ordinarily of subdued and blended coloration, lacking much of the variegation 

 commonly observed in shore-birds ; the sexes are usually alike, and the changes of plumage 

 not great with age or season. The food, never probed for in the mud, but gathered from the 

 surface of the ground or water, consists of a variety of aquatic animal and vegetable substances. 

 The nest is a rude structure, placed on the ground, or in a tuft of reeds or other herbage ; the 

 eggs are numerous, generaUj^ variegated in color ; the young are hatched clothed. The 

 general habit is gregarious, and migratory ; many species occur in vast multitudes, though 

 their skulking ways, and the nature of their resorts, withdraw them from casual observation. 

 Some species swim habitually. 



There appear to bo upward of 150 species of the family, falling in several well-marked 

 groups. The OcydromincB are an Old World type of some 35 species, ranking with some 

 authors as a distinct family. Mr. Gray makes the African Himantornis hmmatopus the type 

 and single representative of another subfamily. Excluding the Parridce and Heliornithida, 

 both of which are sometimes brought under Rallidai, as subfamilies, the three remaining 

 groups are represented in this country. 



Analysis of Subfamilies and Genera. 



EALLlNiE. Hails. No frontal sbielj, tbe feathers of forehead reaching bill. Toes simple. Body com- 

 pressed. 



Bill slender, longer than head, curved, with long narrow nasal groove and linear nostrils . . Rallus 271 

 Bill stout, not longer than head, straight, with broad nasal groove and oblong nostrils . . Porzana 272 



As in the last ; wings longer, folding nearly to end of tail Crex 273 



Gallinlilin.e. GaUinules. A bare horny frontal shield. Toes simple or merely margined. Body 

 less compressed. 



Toes without evident lateral margins ; nostrils oval lonornis 275 



Toes with lateral margins; nostrils narrow Gallinula 274 



FULIOIKJE. Coots. A bare horny frontal shield. Toes lobate. Body depressed. Nostrils narrow 



FuUca 276 



62. Subfamily RALLIN/E : True Rails. 



This is the largest, and central or typical, group, to which 

 most of the foregoing paragraph is especially applicable. The 

 m.i species are strictly paludicole ; the compression of the body is at 



*-' a maximum; the form is blunt and thick behind, with a very 



short tip-up tail, and tapers to a point in front ; the whole fig- 

 ure being thus adapted to wedge through narrow places. The 

 wings are extremely short and rounded, and the ordinary flight 

 appears feeble and vacillating, though the migrations of many 

 Fio. 464. -7;aroiina Rail. (From species arc very extensive. The tail has 12 feathers. The 

 Tenncy, after Wilson.) flank-feathers are commonly enlarged and conspicuously col- 



ored; the thighs are very muscular; the tibiEe are generally if not always naked below; the 

 tarsi scutellat(! in front; the toes are long, cleft, without lobes or any obvious marginal mem- 

 branes. The bill occurs under two principal modifications : in Rallus proper it is longer tlian 

 the head, slender, compressed, slightly curved, long-grooved, with linear nostrils ; in Porzana 

 and most genera, however, it is shorter or not longer tlian the head, straight, rather stout. 



