154 MICHIGAN BIRD LITE. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult: Head and neck above olive brown; the back, including upper surface of wings 
and tail, a lighter shade of the same color, heavily streaked with umber brown and black; 
sides of head and neck reddish brown or cinnamon, this color continuing over the whole 
of the breast, which is unspotted; a white streak from the base of the bill above the eye, 
and a white spot below the eye; chin and upper throat pure white; sides and flanks black 
or brownish black conspicuously barred with pure white; belly nearly white; primaries 
dark brown, their coverts bright rufous; edge of wing white. Sexes alike. Immature: 
Similar. Downy young, uniform glossy black. Length 17 to 19 inches; wing 5.90 to 
6.80; culmen 2.12 to 2.50. 
80. Virginia Rail. Rallus virginianus Linn. (212) 
Synonyms: Little Red-breasted Rail.—Rallus virginianus of authors generally.—Rallus 
limicola, Vieill., 1823. 
Figure 42. 
Very similar to the King Rail in everything but size, the present species 
being very much smaller. 
Distribution: North America, from the British Provinces south to 
Guatemala and Cuba. 
Fig. 42.) \Virginia Rail. From Mounted Specimen. (Original.) 
Unlike the King Rail this species is found over the entire state and 
probably nests wherever found. It is, however, much more abundant 
in the southern half of the state than farther north, and probably in most 
parts of the Upper Peninsula it should be considered rather uncommon. 
S. E. White calls it rare on Mackinac Island; Major Boies saw only a few 
on Neebish Island, St. Mary’s River, in the summer of 1893; and one was 
