284 RALLID^ : RAILS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



in shape and color, but of course much smaller, measuring 

 about 1.25 X 0.95. The ground color varies from dull 

 clayey whitish to creamy. or pale buff, with numberless 

 reddish-brown markings, irregularly distributed, varying 

 from mere dots to blotches, and mixed with shell spots 

 of paler color. Of about the same size as those of the 

 Sora, they may always be distinguished by their colora- 

 tion, which is not of the olive or greenish-drab tint dis- 

 played by the eggs of P. Carolina. 



Dr. Coues gives the following night-scene in Arizona, 

 with Rail in the foreground (B. N. W., 1874, p. 507) : 



" A night at Soda Lake, the debouchure of that singu- 

 lar river, the Mojave, was one of the strangest, as well 

 as most uncomfortable, I ever passed. It was late in 

 October, and the full moon threw a pale, uncertain light 

 upon a scene of desolation and of death. On one side 

 stretched the interminable desert of shifting sand, 

 broken here and there by clumps of the foul creosote 

 plant, straggling patches of grease-wood and bitter sage, 

 and scattered, sentinel-like, Spanish bayonet. . Along 

 the road just traversed were strewn skeletons of beasts 

 that had fallen in their tracks beneath the scorching rays 

 of the sun. At the foot of some cliffs near by lay 

 whitening the heads and horns of the argali {Ovis mon- 

 tana), shot by previous travellers. The bare bones 

 looked of double size and fantastic shape in the uncer- 

 tain moonlight. Before us lay a dead-white sea of salty 

 efflorescence, where the lake had evaporated or sunk in 

 the sand, leaving its saline m.atter. It was dry, except 

 toward the middle, where dark green masses of Tul^ 

 reeds, contrasting with the snowy whiteness all around, 

 showed that a little water was left. Our animals, like 

 ourselves, were exhausted ; one poor creature, cruelly 



