The California Black Rail 



No. 308 



California Black Rail 



A. O. U. No. 216. i. Creciscus jamaicensis coturniculus Ridgway. 



Synonyms. — Pacific Black Rail. Farallon Rail. Farallon Black Rail. 

 Little Black Rail. 



Description. — Adult: Head, breast, and upper belly blackish slate, changing 

 to purer black on sides of head and on crown; a broad patch of rich chestnut on cervix; 

 remaining plumage brownish black, on belly and flanks indistinctly barred with white, 

 on back and wings sharply spotted with white and faintly washed with chestnut; 

 border of wing white. Bill black; feet brownish. Immature: Like adult, but duller; 

 paler below centrally, chin and throat whitish. Length 127-152. 4 (5.00-6.00); av. of 

 10 Berkeley specimens (skins): length 136 (5.36); wing 65.9 (2.59); bill 14 (.55); tarsus 

 21 (.827). 



Recognition Marks. — Warbler size but appearing sparrow size; an incorrigible 

 skulker in marshes; slaty black plumage distinctive. 



Nesting. — Nest: In salt marsh, a shallow platform of broken salicornia stalks 

 placed on ground and more or less concealed by overarching plants. Eggs: 4 to 8; 

 elliptical ovate, white or pinkish white, finely but sparingly sprinkled and spotted with 

 reddish brown (walnut-brown to mikado brown) and vinaceous gray. Av. size of 14 

 specimens in the M. C. 0. coll.: 24.5 x 18.5 (.965 x .73); index 75.8. Season: March 

 20-April 10; one brood. 



Range of Creciscus jamaicensis. — The United States and southern Ontario, 

 breeding in fresh water marshes easterly and in coastal marshes westerly; winters in 

 California and the Gulf States south to Jamaica and Guatemala. 



Range of C. j. coturniculus. — Pacific Coast of the United States from Puget Sound 

 to Lower California. Only known breeding station salt marshes near National City, 

 California. 



Distribution in California. — Probably of general occurrence both in fresh and 

 salt-water marshes during migrations. Common or sporadically abundant (as re- 

 vealed by high tides) in the salt marshes tributary to San Francisco Bay and in Tomales 

 Bay. Casual on the Farallons (2 records). The breeding grounds tributary to San 

 Diego Bay are the only ones so far exploited. 



Authorities. — Cooper (Porzana jamaicensis), Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci., vol. iv., 

 1868, p. 8 (Martinez and Alameda): Ridgway, Am. Nat., vol. viii., 1874, p. ill (orig. 

 desc. of Porzana jamaicensis var. coturniculus, type locality, Farallon Ids.); Ingersoll, 

 Condor, vol. xi., 1909, p. 123, figs. (San Diego Bay; nesting habits, photos of nest and 

 eggs, etc.); Cooke, U. S. Dept. Agric, Bull. no. 128, 1914, p. 35, map (distr.) ; Grinnell, 

 Bryant and Storer, Game Birds Calif., 1918, p. 304 (desc. occurrence, habits). 



ABSOLUTE size, whether of birds or bales, is a matter for mathe- 

 maticians and stevedores — it is all in the day's work; but relative size is a 

 matter for poets and rhapsodists, and children withal, — a thing to fire 

 the imagination and feed the fancy. Your Black Rail is as big as a Song 

 Sparrow — nearly ; but he comes of a race that is due to be as big as a dove 



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