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Order III. GRALL.E. 



Family RALLID^]. 



Genus RALLUS. 



Rallus, Brisson, Orn. v. p. 151 (1760). 



Scolopax apud S. G. Gmelin, Reise d. Russl. iii. p. 90 (1774). 



Aramus apud G. R. Gray, Hand-1. of B. iii. p. 59 (1871). 



The species included in this genus inhabit the Palsearctic, Ethiopian, Oriental, Nearctic, and 

 Neotropical Regions, one species only being found in the Western Paleearctic Region. They 

 inhabit the grassy and reed-covered margins of lakes and rivers, and any damp, well-covered 

 localities where they can find an abundance of food and have good opportunities of concealment. 

 They wade in shallow water, and are able to swim, and even dive, when purs-ued and closely 

 pressed. They feed on worms and small aquatic insects of various kinds, and to some extent 

 also on seeds. Their flight is laboured and heavy ; and they seldom fly far when flushed, but 

 drop into cover again after having flapped heavily a short distance. Their call-note is loud and 

 clear ; but, as a rule, they are not noisy birds. They breed in damp localities, constructing a 

 loose nest of dried leaves and aquatic plants, in which they deposit six or seven eggs, which are 

 very pale stone-buff in colour, sparingly spotted and blotched with purplish grey and dark red. 

 The young birds are able to leave the nest soon after they are hatched, and are very expert in 

 hiding should danger threaten. 



JRallus aqicaticus, the type of the genus, has the bill longer than the head, slender, slightly 

 decurved, compressed in its whole length, tapering slightly to the tip; nasal groove extending 

 along two thirds of the bill, the nostrils linear, partly covered by a membrane; wings short, 

 concave, rounded, the first quill shorter than the sixth, the second longest, the third scarcely 

 shorter ; tail short, rounded, the feathers broad, rounded, and weak ; legs and feet long, the 

 lower part of the tibia bare ; tarsus rather long, scutellate ; toes very long, slender, compressed, 

 the claws slender, arched, compressed, slightly tapering. 



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