282 RALLID^ : RAILS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



FRESH-WATER MARSH HEN; KING RAIL. 

 Rallus elegans Aud. 



Chars. With a general resemblance to R. crepitans, but much 

 more brightly colored, as well as larger. Adult, above distinctly 

 streaked with brownish-black and tawny-olive, becoming rich 

 chestnut on the wing-coverts. Below, cinnamon-red, brightest 

 on the breast, fading on the throat and belly ; a line of the same 

 over the eye, and dusky stripe through e3'e ; lower eyelid white. 

 Flanks and lining of wings blackish, broadly and distinctly barred 

 with white. Length, 17.00-19.00; extent, 23.00-25.00; wing, 

 6.00-7.00 ;bill, 2.10-2.50; tarsus, 2.30. 



The King Rail is certainly a rare bird in New Eng- 

 land, and the manner of its occurrence has not been 

 ascertained with precision. It should probably be 

 classed as a summer visitor of irregular or casual occur- 

 rence and local distribution. Its record is quite brief. 

 Linsley gives a single instance of its breeding at Strat- 

 ford, Conn. (Am. Journ. Sci., xliv, 1843, p. 267). Coues 

 records a Connecticut specimen in the Museum of the 

 Essex Institute, Salem, from West Haven (Pr. Essex 

 Inst., V, 1868, p. 296) ; apparently the same as noted by 

 Brewer (Pr. Bost. Soc, xvii, 1875, p. 447). Merriam 

 records two cases for the same State : a specimen taken 

 at Portland, by W. W. Coe, and another at Saybrook, in 

 midwinter (Jan. 14, 1876), by J. N. Clark (Rev. B. Conn., 

 1877, p. 115). For Massachusetts, Purdie gives the first 

 record, that of a specimen in the collection of Geo. O. 

 Welch, shot at Nahant, Nov. 21, 1875* (Bull. Nutt. 



* This is the specimen noted by Brewer (Pr. Bost. Soc, xix, 1878, 

 p. 307) in " the cabinet of Mr. Willard S. Brewer," " shot at 

 Nahant in the spring of 1876." (See Brewster, Bull. Nutt. Club, 



