512 BIRDS — RALLID^. 



deepest on the breast where many feathers are dark tipped ; flanks with numerons white 

 bars; crissum varied with black, white and rnfuus. Small, aboat 6 locg; wing, 3| ; 

 tail, li ; bill, i ; tarsus, f j middle toe and claw, IJ. 



Habitat, Eastern North America. North to Hudson's Bay, but iu New England not 

 observed beyond Massachusetts. Apparently nowhere abundant. Wiuters in the South- 

 ern States. 



Not common spring and fall migrant; probably summer resident. 

 The Yellow Rail, otherwise known as the Yellow-breasted Rail or Upland 

 Rail, is the least common of all species positively identified in this State. 



It has been taken in the vicinity of Cleveland, where it is known as 

 the Upland Rail, frequenting higher ground than that usually affected by 

 members of this family. Mr. Langdon gives it as rare in the vicinity 

 of Cincinnati. Dr. Howard E. Jones, to whom I am indebted for speci- 

 mens, has taken it frequently at Circleville, both in fall and spring, and 

 considers it nearly as common as other species and believes that it breeds 

 there, which is probably the case throughout the State. 



Eggs rich, warm, buflfy-brown, marked at the greater end with a cluster 

 of reddish-chocolate dots and spots, and measuring 1.10 by .82. 



Mr. Maynard describing a Massachusetts specimen taken on high land 

 twenty or thirty rods from a meadow at the foot of a hill, says, " It is a 

 female and diflFers from any which I have seen, having a broud white edg- 

 ing to the secondaries." A specimen obtained at Circleville, by Dr. Howard 

 E. Jones and presented to me, has the outer secondaries white-tipped for 

 an inch or more and the adjacent quills barred with white, the under 

 tail-coverts deep purplish chestnut. Either these markings have been 

 overlooked by previous describers or the species varies much in color 

 and pattern in these particulars. Nuttall describes the bird as uniformly 

 having white-tipped secondaries. 



Sub-family GallindlinjE. Gallinules. 



General form much as in Ballince but body less comprbssed. Forehead shielded by a 

 broad, bare, horny plate. Toes longer than the tarsus. 



Genus GALLINULA. Brisson. 

 Toes margined with a thin, though evident, membrane. Nostrils linear. 



Galljnula galeata Bon. 



H'lorida Grallimxle. 



GalUnula chlortpua, Kirtlahd, Ohio Qeolog. Surv., 1838, 165, 185 ; Am. Jonrn. Sei., and 

 Arts, xl., 1841, 22. 



