109 



VIRGINIAN RAIL. 

 RALLUS VIRGimANUS. 

 [Plate LXII.— Fig. 1.] 



*lrct. Zool. JVo. 408. — Edw. 279. — Lath. Sijn. v. 3, ]}. 228, J\^o. ±,~Tar. A. — Peaib's Mumiimi 



JV'o. 4426, 



THIS species very much resembles the European Water Rail, 

 (Rallus aquaticus) but is smaller, and has none of the slate or lead 

 color on the breast which marks that of the old continent ; its toes 

 are also more than proportionably shorter, which, with a few other 

 peculiarities, distinguish the species. It is far less numerous in 

 this part of the United States than our common Rail, and, as I ap- 

 prehend, inhabits more remote northern regions. It is frequently 

 seen along the borders of our salt marshes, which the other rarely 

 visits; and also breeds there, as well as among the meadows that 

 border our large rivers. It spreads over the interior as far west 

 as the Ohio, having myself shot it in the barrens of Kentucky, 

 early in May. The people there observe them in wet places, in 

 the groves, only in spring. It feeds less on vegetable and more 

 on animal food than the common Rail. During the months of 

 September and October, when the reeds and wild oats swarm with 

 the latter species, feeding on their nutritious seeds, a few of the 

 present kind are occasionally found ; but not one for five hundred 

 of the others. The food of the present species consists of small 

 snail shells, worms, and the larvse of insects, which it extracts from 

 the mud; hence the cause of its greater length of bill, to enable it 

 the more readily to reach its food. On this account also, its flesh 

 is much inferior to that of the other. In most of its habits, its thin 

 compressed form of body, its aversion to take wing, and the dex- 



VOL. VII. EC 



