LONG-BILLED RAIL. 
195 
in November: the females begin to lay soon after 
their arrival, constructing their nests of old grass and 
rushes : they deposit from six to ten eggs, of a dirty- 
white or cream-colour, sprinkled with specks of red- 
dish and pale purple, most so at the larger end. 
Their chief food consists of small snails, worms, and 
larvffi ; but towards autumn they sometimes devour 
seeds. Like the former bird, they affect the marshy 
and damp parts of the country, especially the borders 
of the fresh water streamlets that flow through the 
salt marshes ; its habits are in other respects very 
similar to those of the preceding species. 
LONG-BILLED HAIL. 
' (Rallus longirostris.) 
Ra. corpore supra cinereo Jusco maculato, subtiis JerrugmeO'albo, 
hypochondriis albo transversim undatis, rosh'o ferrugineo . 
Rail with the body above spotted with cinereous and brown, 
beneath rusty-white^ the flanks transversely undulated with 
white, the beak rust-colour. 
Rallus longirostris. Gmel. Syst. Nat. 1.718. Lath. Ind. Orn. 
2. 759. 
Le Rale a long bee de Cayenne. Biiff. Ois. 8. 1 63. Buff. PL 
Enl. 849. 
Long-billed Rail. Lath. Gen. Syn. 5. 237. 
Length nine inches and a half : beak rather long 
and stout, ferruginous, with its tip dusky : the pre- 
vailing colour of the upper parts of the body faint 
