114 MANUAL 



and feet ; long claws — nearly straight and pointed ; deter- 

 mine the species at a glance. Its feet and light weight allow 

 it of walking about on the pads of lillies and of other water 

 plants, so that it looks as if it had the power of walking upon 

 the water. Its body is small. It is really a South American 

 species, but found occasionally along the tropical shores of 

 North America. 



Genus, Parra, The Mexican Jaeana. 



FAMILY XLIX RALLIDAE THE RAILS 

 GALLINULES AND COOTS 



Probably French rale, "a rattling" noise, " rail, crake," referring to 



the rattling of their continued notes. 

 We come now, once again, to a familiar and well-known 

 family representatives of which occur over nearly the entire 

 portion of North America, though principally shore-ward. 

 They are dispersed to some extent throughout the interior of 

 the continent. Nearly every shore-marsh and a great many 

 fresh-water marshes hundreds of miles inland along our sea- 

 board has its Rail fauna. The members of the family are eas- 

 ily known at sight, and a single representative characterizes 

 well the whole group ; although its special peculiarities easily 

 separate it into three well marked and stable sub-families. 

 The family characteristics are rather difficult to formulate, in 

 spite of the unmistakable appearance of the birds. Professor 

 Baird's diagnosis of his " Tribe Paludicolje " gives us well 

 the features of our family, and is as follows : 



" Species living in marshes, with elevated bodies, much 

 compressed laterally ; usually with longer necks than most 

 snipe, with moderately long, strong, and stout bills also much 

 compressed and covered at the tip by a horny investment ; 

 the remaining portion membranous, with elongated nasal fur- 

 rows, and narrow, more or less perforated, nostrils. The lores 

 are feathered uniformly as in the Limicol^e ; the rest of the 

 plumage without the spotting of the snipes. Wings rather 

 short, more rounded than pointed, and when folded do not 



