RALLID.E — THE RAILS — RALLUS. 
357 
Compared witli the larger species (R. longirostris, with its races, R. elegans and 
R. obsoletus), it is difficult to say to which this Bail is most nearly related. None of the 
forms of R. longirostris, however, need close comparison, the darkest-colored race of 
that species (if. longirostris scituratus, from Louisiana) having broader black stripes 
and a very different (ash-gray) ground-color above ; the breast, etc., a very much duller 
and lighter cinnamon, and the flank-bars broader and on a uniform ground-color. R. 
obsoletus agrees best in the coloration of the upper parts, which, however, in all speci- 
mens (including one from San Quentin Bay, on the western side of Lower California) 
have a lighter, and in some a decidedly grayer, ground-color; but the white flank- 
bars are much broader, with unicolored interspaces, the breast very conspicuously 
paler, and the size considerably greater. R. elegans has also the breast paler, the 
ground-color of the upper parts a lighter and much more yellowish olive, and the 
black stripes much more sharply defined. Upon the whole, I see no other way than 
to consider the specimen in cpiestion as representing a very distinct species or local 
race, which I take great pleasure in naming after its collector. 
[Note. — Since the above was written, the National Museum has received two additional speci- 
mens, a male and a female, collected by Mr. Belding at La Paz in January, 1883. These agree 
closely with the type, from Espiritu Santo Island, thus fully establishing the validity of the 
species.] 
Rallus obsoletus. 
THE CALIFORNIA CLAPPER RAIL. 
? Rallus elegans, Coop. & Suckl. Pacific R. R. Rep. XII. ii. 1860, 246 (Washington Terr.). 
Rallus elegans, var. obsoletus, Ridgw. Am. Nat. VIII. 1874, 111. — Coues, Check List, App.1873,137, 
no. 466 a. 
Rallus elegans, b. obsoletus, Coues, Birds N. W. 1874, 535. 
Rallus obsoletus, Ridgw. Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, V. no. 3, July, 1880, 139 ; Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, 
no. 570. 
Rallus longirostris obsoletus, Coues, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, no. 674. 
Hab. Salt-marshes of the Pacific coast, south to San Quentin Bay, Lower California, north to 
Washington Territory (?). 
Sp. Char. Adult : Above, grayish olivaceous, indistinctly striped with brownish black ; crown 
and nape brownish dusky ; a light brown supraloral stripe ; lores and suborbital region dusky 
brownish ; chin and throat white ; rest of head and neck, with jugulum and breast, light cinna- 
mon, as in R. elegans; flanks and sides grayish brown, with narrow bars of white (bars about 
.08-10 of an inch wide, the interspaces .20 to .30) ; axillars and lining of wing similar, but darker, 
the white bars narrower ; anal region and middle of abdomen plain pale buff ; crissum brown or 
dusky, barred with white, the lateral feathers nearly immaculate white. Wing-coverts umber- 
brown ; remiges plain dusky ; rectrices grayish olive, obsoletely dusky centrally. Downy young : 
Uniform glossy black ; bill black and whitish (the latter on end and around nostril). 
Total length, about 17.00-18.00 inches ; wing, 6.40-6.60 ; culmen, 2.25-2 50 ; least depth of 
bill (through middle), .32-35 ; tarsus, 2.10-2.25; middle toe, 2.00-2.15. 
The Salt-water Marsh-hen of the Pacific coast differs from that of the Atlantic seaboard in the 
more olivaceous upper parts, with very distinct dusky stripes, and decided cinnamon-color of the 
breast, in which respects it approaches the Fresh-water species ( R, . elegans ), the resemblance to 
which is so great in the last respect that the bird was originally described as a variety of R. elegans. 
The colors and markings of the flanks, however, as well as its peculiar habitat, prove its relation- 
ship to he rather with R. longirostris. We here treat it as an independent species, for the reason 
that it is isolated geographically from any of the races of R. longirostris, while it may also always 
be distinguished by its peculiar colors and proportions. 
