40 BULLETIN 5 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



<Fulicin8e Baibd, Bkewee, and Ridgway, Water Birds North Amer., i, 1884, 

 351 (FuUca only).— Coues, Key North Amer. Birds, ed. 2, 1884, 676.— 

 Amebican Ornithologists' Union, Check List, 1886, 144; ed. 3, 1910, 

 101.— Shaepb, Hand-list, i, 1899, xiii, 109 (Fulica-\-Palaeolvmms-\-L0- 

 guatia). — Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Amer., Aves, ill, 1903, 329. 



<Fuliceae Baied, Rep. Pacific R. R. Surv., ix, 1858, 746 {PuUca+OaWr 

 nula+Porphyrula). 



<Ralleae Baird, Rep. Pacific R. R. Surv., ix, 1858, 746 (Balhis+Por- 

 zana+Gredscus+Coturnicops) . 



The osteological and other anatomical characters of the Rallidae 

 are the same as those given for the Ralli, on page 38. In external 

 characters there is so great a range of variation that it is somewhat 

 difficult to define the family with precision, as based on these alone. 

 The bill varies from short to long, and the basal portion of the 

 rhinotheca is sometimes (in the genera Gallirmla, Fulica, Porfjiyrio, 

 etc.) developed into a conspicuous, expanded (sometimes ridged or 

 "crested") frontal shield. The toes are relatively long, with rather 

 long and slightly curved claws, the hallux being much longer than 

 in other groups of so-called water birds, but more nearly incumbent, 

 and in the genus Fulica, they are conspicuously lobed laterally (much 

 as in the Heliornithidae and Phalaropodidae) . The head is com- 

 pletely feathered (except when a frontal shield is present). The 

 body is distinctly compressed, to facilitate the passage through 

 close-growing aquatic plants. The wings are relatively small, 

 rounded, and very concave beneath, the ability to fly being poorly 

 developed, some forms being quite unable to fly. In short, the 

 Rallidae are water birds, usually of small size, with compressed body, 

 long toes, incumbent or nearly incumbent hallux, muscular thighs, 

 and with relatively short, rounded and concave wings which are 

 sometimes so feeble as to be useless for flight. They are very retiring 

 and crepuscular or nocturnal in their habits, and live in marshes and 

 swamps, where their food, consisting largely of aquatic insects or 

 plants and small moUusks, is picked from the surface of the water 

 or mud, or from aquatic plants, and probed for in the soft mud or 

 ooze as in the case of the Limicolae. Many of the species have 

 remarkably loud, often discordant voices. 



Their nests consist of more or less crude though rather bulky plat- 

 forms of dead grasses, sedges, or other aquatic plants supported by 

 upright growing plants. The eggs are numerous and are always 

 more or less spotted or speckled, the ground color varying from 

 nearly white to buff or clay color. The young are densely clothed 

 with milky down (often black in color) and the head is sometimes 

 (notably in the genus Fulica) ornamented by brightly colored (yel- 

 lowish, orange, or even red) filaments. They are highly "precocious," 

 leaving the nest and swimming about almost as soon as hatched. 



