THE CLAPPER RAIL. 173 



about the same breadth; its lateral muscles very prominent, the left large, 

 the inferior muscle well pronounced; the epithelium dense, hard, of a bright 

 red colour, and forming two oblong flat grinding plates, with intermediate 

 ruga?. The proventricular glands are cylindrical, 1 twelfth in length, form- 

 ing a belt 9 twelfths in breadth. The contents of the stomach are fragments 

 of small shells. The intestine, fg h, is 31^ inches long; its average width 

 4^ twelfths; rectum, bed, Fig. 2, 3 inches long; cceca, b e, 3^ inches in 

 length, their width for an inch and a quarter, 1| twelfths; cloaca globular, 

 nearly 1 inch in diameter. 



The trachea is 6 inches long, flattened, its breadth at the upper part 4 

 twelfths, soon diminishing to 3 twelfths, and so remaining to near the end; 

 the rings ossified, 145 in number; the last rings contracted to 1^ twelfths. 

 Bronchi moderate, the half rings about 20, very slender and cartilaginous. 



The sternum in this, as in the other Rails and Gallinules, has the body 

 extremely narrow, with two very deep and narrow notches at its posterior 

 extremity, the crest moderately elevated, and extending its whole length; 

 the furcula very narrow and slender, the coracoid bones little diverging and 

 of moderate strength. In these respects, the sternal apparatus agrees with 

 that of the Gallinules and Coots, and presents a strong affinity to that of the 

 Scolopaceous Courlan, in which the body of the sternum, though much 

 broader, is of the same form, and the crest perfectly similar. In the Rails, 

 Gallinules, and Coots, the innutritious part of the food, whether fragments 

 of shells, or husks of seeds, passes into the intestine, not being ejected by 

 vomiting, in which respect the birds of this family are analogous to the 

 Gallinaceous group, of which the coeca attain the maximum size, while in 

 the Rails and Gallinules these organs are next in development. It is not 

 merely a vague and distant analogy that the Rallinae thus present to the 

 Gallinaceous birds, but a direct gradation, insomuch that they might with 

 more propriety be considered as the aquatic group of the Rasores, the Coots 

 forming the extreme part of the series. 



I found this species exceedingly abundant, and breeding along the shores 

 of the Gulf of Mexico, from the mouth of the Mississippi to Galveston 

 Island, in Texas. 



Vol. V. 24 



