NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 123 



domestic fowl, while in color and markings they are similar to those of the Sandhill 

 Crane — varying from almost pure white to creamy, buff, and grayiSh-white. The 

 eggs are variously spotted, daubed and stained with brown and gray. A set of six 

 eggs containing the largest specimens in the series, exhibit the following dimensions: 

 2.57x1.80, 2.44x1.75, 2.40x1.77, 2.28x1.75, 2.39x1.80, 2.41x1.83; the set showing the small- 

 est sizes are given as follows: 2.21x1.72, 2.21x1.70, 2.22x1.62 2.23x1.63, 2.45x1.63, 

 2.23x1.65.* 



208. KING RAIL. Rallus eleffans Aud. Geog. Dist. — Fresh-water marshes of 

 Eastern United States from the Middle States, Northern Illinois, Wisconsin and 

 Kansas southward. Casually north to Massachusetts and Maine, and Ontario. 



The King Rail, Fresh-water Marsh Hen, or Red-breasted Rail, is distributed in 

 summer from New York southward, breeding throughout the inland marshes. It is 

 a summer resident in Ohio. I collected eggs of this species in a marsh a few miles 

 from Columbus in May, 1887. It is frequently confounded with the Clapper Rail; the 

 latter, however, is confined to the vicinity of salt water, and is a bird of duller 



208. King Rail. (After Audubon.) 



plumage. The nest of this Rail is placed on the ground in a marsh, often fastened in 

 a tussock of grass. It is composed of grass and weeds. The eggs vary from a dull 

 white to cream or pale buff, sparsely dotted and spotted with reddish-brown and lilac; 

 six to twelve in number; size from 1.55 to 1.72 long by 1.15 to 1.25 broad, averaging 

 1.67 by 1.12. 



209. BELDING'S RAIX. Rallus heldinffi Ridgw. Geog. Dist.— Lower Cali- 

 fornia (Espiritus Santo Island and vicinity of La Paz). 



Under the ruling of the A. 0. U. Code to admit the islands pertaining to Lower 

 California, this species comes within the North American avifauna. It is very much 

 like R. elegans, but is darker and richer colored throughout, the white bars of the 



• Ornithologist and Oologist, XII, pp. 159-160. 



