406 YELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. 



tail is very short, the feathers flaccid, not appearing from beneath the 

 coverts. 



The female is generally, though not always, similar to the male, an 

 exception being met with in one of the small European species. The 

 young differ much from the adult. They moult twice a year. 



The bill of the subgenus Rallus (true Rails) may be thus described : 

 longer than the head, slender, straight, subequal throughout, compressed 

 at base, cylindrical and obtuse at the point ; upper mandible furrowed 

 beyond the base : nostrils more basal, linear. 



In the Crakes, of which the present is an example, the bill is shorter 

 than the head, robust, much higher than broad at base, tapering, com- 

 pressed and acute at the point : upper mandible furrowed at base only, 

 a little curved at tip : the lower is navicular : the nostrils exactly medial, 

 oblong. Apparently the group is easy to define, but as if nature took 

 delight in baffling our attempts at exactness, the species are found to 

 pass from one form to another by nice and insensible degrees. * 



This Rail, like all others, inhabits swamps, marshes, and the reedy 

 margins of ditches and lakes. By a singular coincidence, it was in the 

 market of New York that, in the beginning of February, 1826, I first 

 met with this pretty species, which appears to have escaped the in- 

 dustrious research of Wilson, although found equally in Pennsylvania 

 in winter, where it is, however, very rare. We can hardly believe it is 

 to be found in the south or south-west, notwithstanding we have been 

 credibly informed of the circumstance. But we have no hesitation in 

 declaring it an arctic bird, for we do not doubt that it is the Hudsonian 

 Quail of Latham, thus miscalled by superficial observers on account of 

 its general resemblance in plumage and size to the true Quail of Europe ; 

 besides which we have received it ourselves from the extreme northern 

 limits of the American continent, and have information of its inhabiting 

 near the most north-western lakes, such as the Athabasca. 



The Crakes, as well as the true Rails, lead a solitary life : they are 

 timid and shy, screening themselves from observation amidst the tall 

 reeds, so as hardly ever to be seen except when surprised, which does 

 not very often happen, and forced for a moment to have recourse to their 

 short wings. But they prefer to evade dangers by their rapid move- 

 ments among the aquatic herbage, which the compressed form of their 

 body enables them to execute with the greatest facility, however en- 

 tangled the stalks, or narrow the interstices. They also swim and dive 

 tolerably well, when compelled to take the water, hiding all but the tip 

 of the bill, but are by no means so essentially aquatic as the Gallinules, 

 or their close relatives the Porphyriones. They also breed in marshes, 

 among weeds and thickets, placing the nest near the water's edge, or, 

 fastening it to the reeds, they build a floating habitation. In most of 

 the species (how it is in the present we do not know), the eggs are about 



