and pheasants, for battles among the birds themselves, for they are worn 

 equally by the small males and the much larger jemales. Evidently, then, 

 they are for defense against outside enemies, such as alligators, iguanas, tor- 

 toises, and predatory birds and mammals. That they are very effective 

 weapons seems to be attested by the birds' abundance, noisiness, and tame 

 and nonchalant manner. 



The colors of rails differ from those of gallinules and coots (and differ 

 even among the several species), exactly as do their habits. They are more 

 terrestrial, and their general color-scheme accordingly is browner. The 

 backs of many species bear a subdued and dusky striate pattern of the 'grass' 

 type — richer and brighter on the more terrestrial kinds, and vice versa. (See 

 Fig. 52.) Some are slate-gray underneath, others pale rufous, or grayish 

 white; but almost all have a complete counter shading, with a light culmi- 

 nation on the vent and belly. Some, like the Yellow Rail (Porzana novebor- 

 acensis), have a background-picturing pattern of delicate, grasslike, pale- 

 brown barrings. But it is the patterns for which the birds of this family are 

 peculiar that we have here to consider. These are the characteristic bar- 

 rings on the flank feathers (in Rallus) and the system of pure-white specklings 

 and slender stripings on the dark-colored upper sides (in Porzana)— mark- 

 ings which, although not, indeed, strictly limited to the rails, yet reach an 

 unusually high degree of development and significance among them. Water 

 pictures of some kind they plainly are; and it is not difficult to go further and 

 perceive what details and aspects of reed-swamp surfaces they most resemble. 

 The white punctations picture broken glints of sky-shine on the dusky water, 

 seen beyond and through the dim vegetation-pattern, rendered by the darker 

 markings of the birds' backs. The barred flank-pattern pictures glimmering 

 water intersected by bold shadows from the reeds— or by intervening shaded 

 reeds themselves. That crane-like relative of the rails, the Courlan (Ara- 

 mus), the ground-color of whose costume is the deep, dull brown of heavily 

 shaded, muddy water, has likewise a water-glint pattern of pure- white spots 

 on its head and neck. This I have seen performing admirably its 'obliter- 



61 



