RALLIDiE — THE RAILS — RALLUS. 
353 
Rallus elegans. 
THE KING KAIL; GREAT RED-BREASTED RAIL. 
a. elegans. 
Rallus crepitans, Wils. Am. Orn. VII. 1813, pi. 62, fig. 2 (fig. but not descr. Not R. crepitans, 
Gmel. ), — (?) Allen, Bull. Mas. Comp. Zool. III. 1872, 182 (Great Salt Lake, Utah). 1 
Rallus elegans, Aud. Orn. Biog. III. 1835, 27, pi. 203; Synop. 1839, 215 ; B. Am. V. 1S42, 160, 
pi. 309. — Baikd, B. N. Am. 1858, 746 ; Cat. N. Am. B. 1859, no. 552. — Couek, Key, 1872, 
273; Check v List, 1873, no. 466; 2d ed. 1882, no. 676; Birds N. W. 1874, 535. — Ridgw. 
Norn. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 569. 
b. tenuirostris. 
Rallus elegans, var. tenuirostris, Lawk. Am. Nat. Feb. 1874, 111 (City of Mexico). — Ridgw. Bull. 
Nutt. Orn. Club, V. no. 3, July, 1880, 139. 
Hab. Fresh-water marshes of the Eastern Province of the United States, north, casually, to 
Massachusetts, Maine, and Canada West, regularly to the Middle States and Northern Illinois ; 
west to Kansas (Great Salt Lake, Allen 1 2 ). Replaced in the salt-marshes along the Atlantic 
and Gulf coasts by representative forms of R. longirostris. 
Sp. Char. Adult: Above, yellowish olive or ochraceous-drab, very conspicuously and sharply 
striped with black ; crown dark brown ; a supraloral streak of brownish white, continued to the 
occiput in a broader stripe of brownish gray ; lores and suborbital region brownish gray or dull 
brownish; chin and throat white; remainder of head and neck, including jugnlum and breast, 
light cinnamon ; flanks and sides dark brownish or blackish dusky, barred with white, the white 
bars averaging about .10-15 of an inch in width, the interspaces more than twice as wide ; crissum 
mixed dusky and white, the lateral feathers almost immaculate white ; middle of the abdomen 
considerably lighter than the breast, sometimes quite white ; axillars and lining of the wing similar 
to the flanks, but white bars narrower, and less distinct. W ing-coverts, rusty brownish, sometimes 
inclining to chestnut, and not infrequently more or less barred with reddish white ; tertials widely 
striped, like the scapulars ; remiges plain umber -brown ; rectrices raw-umber, with a dusky medial 
stripe. “ Lower mandible and edges of upper brownish yellow ; ridge of upper, and tips of both, 
deep brown ; iris bright red ; feet yellowish brown, tinged with olive ; claws of the same color” 
(Audubon). Downy young: Uniform glossy black; bill dusky, the end, and incomplete wide 
band near the base (enclosing the nostril), pale yellowish or whitish (in the skin) ; legs and feet 
brownish (in skin). 
Total length, about 17 inches; wing, 5.90-6.80 ; culmen, 2.12-2.50; depth of bill in middle, 
.27-35 ; tarsus, 2.20-2.40 ; middle toe, 1.80-2.10. 
The individual variation in this species is very considerable, both as regards coloration and the 
proportions ; but it may always be readily distinguished from the allied forms by the characters 
1 May possibly be R. obsoletus. 
2 No specimens seen ; may possibly be obsoletus. 
vol i. — 45 
