96 Birds of Colorado 
a dead bird of this species near the terminal moraine of the Arapahoe 
glacier in Boulder co., at an elevation of about 12,500 feet. This was 
probably an accidental occurrence. 
Habits.—This little Rail is very abundant in the swamps 
of the Atlantic states, where large numbers are killed 
by gunners for the restaurants, and it is known as the 
“‘Ortolan.” In their habits they are not very different 
from the Virginia Rail, though more often found in 
meadow-lands and on cultivated ground. 
A set of seven eggs taken at Greeley on June Ist, 
1903, by I. C. Hall and presented by him to the Colorado 
College Museum, are quite distinct from those of the 
Virginia Rail. They are drab with a few large blotches 
and round spots of purplish and reddish-brown; in 
shape they are rather more pointed and they average 
1:25 x °91. Gale notes that fresh eggs are found about 
May 15th, at 5,500 feet, and about July 5th, at 10,000 
feet. A nest with fourteen eggs, collected by Bragg 
north-east of Boulder, June 7th, 1904, is in the 
University of Colorado Museum. 
Genus CRECISCUS. 
Hardly differing from Porzana, except that the bill is more slender 
and acute, and that the nostrils are nearer the baseof the bill than 
the tip. 
Two closely allied species are recognized in the last supplement 
of the A.O.U. Checklist, from eastern and western North America 
respectively. 
Black Rail. Creciscus jamaicensis. 
A.0.U. Checklist no 216—Colorado Record—Cooke 97, p. 158. 
Description.—Adult—Above blackish, nape and shoulders dark 
reddish-brown, back and wings spotted with white; below slaty-grey, 
darker and cross-barred with white on the abdomen and under wing- 
coverts ; iris red, bill black, feet greenish. Length 5; wing 2-95; tail 
1:35; culmen -53; tarsus -89. 
Young birds are paler below, especially on the throat, and the crown 
is brownish rather than blackish. 
