52 BULLETESr 5 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



or Saccardo's umber narrowly edged with slightly paler shade of the 

 same ; remiges olive-brown on outer web, slightly darker on the inner 

 web ; rectrices dark olive-brown ; a stripe from the base of the maxilla 

 to above, but not behind, eye white, often washed with huffy ; lores 

 deep mouse gray with a faint brownish tinge ; eyelids whitish or pale 

 huffy; cheeks, auriculars, and sides of occiput neutral gray to deep 

 neutral gray, washed lightly with brownish in some specimens, not 

 so washed in others ; chin and upper throat white ; side of neck and the 

 lower throat grayish hair brown to dusky grayish buffy brown in some 

 specimens, while in others these areas are pale cinnamon-buff slightly 

 clouded with grayish ; breast like lower throat in each case, but paler, 

 less grayish (in specimens with grayish hair brown or dusky buffy 

 brown throats the breast is lighter and washed with very pale cinna- 

 mon-buff; in birds with pale cinnamon-buff throats the breast is 

 slightly paler and free of the grayish cloudiness) ; abdomen whitish, to 

 pale buffy white ; sides and flanks dusky drab barred with white, the 

 white bars about one-third to one-half the width of the dark interspaces ; 

 vent like flanks ; thighs like abdomen but washed or barred with dusky 

 drab ; longer under tail coverts ahnost wholly white, the others dusky 

 drab barred with white ; under wing coverts Dresden brown to Prout's 

 brown crossed by narrow white bars ; iris reddish brown to pale yellow ; 

 bill yellow, dusky on culmen and at tip; tarsi and toes grayish with 

 yellow or orange tinge at the tibiotarsal joint.** 



Jvmenal (sexes alike). — Similar to adult above and varying in like 

 fashion in the color of the feather edges, but with the lower back, 

 rump, and upper tail coverts much more uniformly olive-brown to 

 sepia, the margins there being much reduced and obscured; the 

 greater and median upper wing coverts more generally tipped nar- 

 rowly with whitish and subterminally crossed by a narrow bar of the 

 same ; below as in adults, varying in the color of the lower throat and 

 breast, but always with a grayish wash; abdomen more extensively 

 white ; sides and flanks mouse gray to deep mouse gray barred irregu- 

 larly with grayish white, the sides washed witth pale cinnamon-buff ; 

 thighs white anteriorly, deep mouse gray posteriorly. 



Natal down. — Black with a faint greenish gloss on the top of the 

 head and the upperparts generally; washed with dark brown and 

 without any gloss on the underparts. 



■"Some investigators prefer to segregate specimens of this rail into several 

 color phases instead of considering them individual variations, as follows : 1, A 

 bird with grayish margins to the feathers of the upperparts of the body and with 

 grayish hair brown lower throat ; 2, similar above but with cinnamon-buff on the 

 lower throat ; 3, olive-gray margins above and a grayish hair-brown lower throat ; 

 4, olive-gray margins above and cinnamon-buff lower throat. However, these 

 phases are less distinct in this race than in some others, and are so similar that I 

 prefer to call them individual variations. 



