The Virginia Rail 



credit is due both to the lady and her historian, for a fish perambulating on 

 dry land would not be more remarkable than one of these salt-marsh rails 

 in such a distinctly fresh-water association as the banks of the "Rio Colo- 

 rado." Yet this irruption of a form previously unknown reminds us how 

 little we do know yet of the lagoons and marshy wastes of Lower California 

 and Mexico. Presumably this form, yumanensis, is a resident of the ex- 

 treme delta country which marks the outlet of the Colorado, unexplored, 

 primarily because it is on Mexican territory. 



Whether the new Clapper Rail deserves full specific rank may be 

 doubted. Coastal tidewater marshes are necessarily interrupted; and 

 whereas we now insist upon discovering a new "species" in every isolated 

 marsh group, fuller knowledge may reveal the wisdom of recognizing one 

 wide-spread species, viz., Rallus longirostris Boddaert, with an orderly 

 sequence of local races up and down both coasts of both Americas. Or 

 at least we have here in the longirostrimorphs "a species with the value of a 

 genus." 



No. 305 



Virginia Rail 



A. O. U. Xo. 212. Rallus virginianus Linnaeus. 



Description. — Adult: Above brownish black, the feathers broadly striped 

 laterally with lighter browns (wood-brown, bister, and olive-brown), and shading into 

 burnt umber on wing-coverts and edges of quills; forehead with numerous, enlarged, 

 glossy, black shafts without attendant vanes; a light line over eye in front, and a dusky 

 line through eye; lower eyelid white; sides of head ashy gray; chin and upper throat 

 white; lower throat and breast cinnamon-rufous (Mars brown), growing paler medially 

 and posteriorly; belly, flanks, and lining of wings brownish dusky or blackish, crossed 

 by narrow white bars, lighter, or sometimes almost unmarked fulvous, centrally and on 

 thighs. Bill red, darker above. Immature birds show blackish more extensively on 

 underparts. Downy young: Uniform glossy black. Length 203.2-266.7 (8.00-10.50) ; 

 wing 105.4 (4- : 5): tail 50.8 (2.00); bill 38.1 (1.50); tarsus 33.8 (1.33); middle toe and 

 claw 45.2 (1.78). 



Recognition Marks. — Robin size (to appearance); marsh-prowling habits. The 

 long reddish bill and rufous coloration serve to distinguish this bird from the following 

 species. 



Nesting. — Nest: Of sedge and grasses in tussock of swamp. Eggs: 6 to 12; 

 creamy white or pale buffy (ivory-yellow to pale vinaceous buff) of noticeably lighter 

 coloration than those of succeeding species) ; spotted and dotted with reddish brown 

 and vinaceous gray. Av. size 31.8x24.1 (1.25 x .95). Season: April-June; one 

 brood. 



General Range. — North America. Breeds from the southern Canadian Prov- 

 inces south to the Central States, and coastwise to North Carolina and southern Cali- 



1537 



