78 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Genus RALLU5, or Typical Rails. 



Type, EALLUS AQUATICUS. 



Rallus, of Linnaeus (1766).— The birds comprising the present genus are 

 characterised by their long, slender bill, longer than the head or the middle toe 

 and claw, and by having the forehead covered with feathers to the base of the 

 culmen. The wings are moderately long, but rather rounded ; the tail is short. 

 The legs are rather long, the lower part of the tibia devoid of feathers, the 

 metatarsus shorter than the middle toe and claw. The bill is long, and slightly 

 decurved ; nostrils longitudinal, placed in a long groove, and partly shielded by a 

 membrane. Three toes in front, long, cleft to the base ; hind toe small and 

 articulated. 



This genus is composed of about ten species and nearly twice as many sub- 

 species, which are nearly cosmopolitan, being inhabitants of all the great zoological 

 regions, with the exception of the Australian region and Polar latitudes. One 

 species is a partial resident in the British Islands. 



The Rails differ very little from the Crakes in their habits and economy, and 

 in the localities they affect. They are birds of the swamps and marshes, of slow 

 and laboured flight, making bulky nests of aquatic vegetation amongst the herbage 

 of their haunts, and their eggs are numerous and double-spotted. Their notes are 

 shrill and unmusical. They are monogamous. Their food is very similar to 

 that of the Crakes. 



