HYPOTHETICAL List, 743 
Although the name hag appeared in various lists, particularly those of 
Covert, Hughes, Atkins, and Stockwell, we are satisfied that specimens 
of the King Rail were mistaken for the other species. The Clapper Rail 
is a bird of the salt marshes of the Atlantic coast and probably never 
occurs within our limits. 
Black Rail. Creciscus jamaicensis (Gmel.). (216) 
Synonyms: Little Black Rail.—Rallus jamaicensis, Gm.—Porzana jamaicensis of 
most authors. 
A tiny rail whose dark slate plumage, flecked with white, is distinctive. 
Distribution.—Temperate North America, north to Massachusetts, 
northern Illinois, and Oregon; south to the West Indies and Guatemala. 
This diminutive rail, the smallest of the genus found in the United 
States, if not anywhere, is extremely rare in Michigan if it occur at all. 
So far as we are aware no Michigan specimen exists in any museum or 
private collection, and it has been recorded from the state but once, and 
the identification in that case was hardly conclusive. In his list of the 
birds of Washtenaw county (1881), Mr. Covert says ‘‘One specimen only 
has fallen under my notice from this county; this specimen was brought 
to me June 4, 1880.” In his manuscript list for 1894-95 he states that 
this bird was killed near Ann Arbor by C. Stoll, and was brought to him 
on the morning of June 4 just as he was starting for Albion where he was 
employed. He took the bird with him in his hand-bag, but had no oppor- 
tunity to skin it until night, when he found that it had spoiled from the 
heat, and it was thrown away. 
So far as we can find, this species is not mentioned in any other Michigan 
list, but there are records from southern Ontario, northern Illinois, Ohio, 
Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nebraska (See J. A. Allen, Auk, XVII, 
5). The single Wisconsin record is as follows: ‘August 20, 1877 a Marsh 
Hawk was killed by F. Kumlien from a muskrat house on the border of 
Lake Koshkonong. When noted first it was eating something, and this 
proved to be a Little Black Rail” (Kumlien and Hollister, Birds of Wiscon- 
sin, p. 39). There are two records for Ohio, and Mr. E. W. Nelson found 
the species nesting near Chicago in 1875. He states that “The nest was 
found June 19, 1875, and contained ten fresh eggs. The eggs are creamy 
white, nearly perfectly oval, thinly sprinkled with fine reddish-brown 
dots which become larger and more numerous at one end. They average 
1 by .85 inches” (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, I, 48). Mr. Nelson considers 
the species a regular summer resident in northeastern Illinois, and not 
very rare. 
This bird is almost mouse-like in its habit of running through the thick 
grass making it practically impossible to flush it except with a dog. Con- 
sidering all the facts, it is not improbable that the Black Rail visits southern 
Michigan occasionally in very small numbers, but thus far has escaped 
detection. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
“Dusky above, the back speckled with white. Adult: Head, neck, and lower parts 
plain dark plumbeous, or slate color, darker (sometimes nearly black) on top of head; 
belly and under tail-coverts brownish black, barred with white; hind neck and back dark 
chestnut brown, marked with small dots and irregular bars of white. Young: Similar 
to adult, but breast, etc. dull grayish, the throat whitish, and top of head tinged with 
reddish-brown. Downy young: Entirely bluish-black. Length 5 to 6 inches; wing 2.50 
to 3.20; culmen .50 to .60; tarsus .85 to .90” (Ridgway). 
