RALLID.E — THE RAILS — RALLUS. 
359 
Rallus longirostris crepitans , Ridgw. Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, V. no. 3, July, 1880, 140 ; Nom. N. 
Am. B. 1881, no. 571. — Coues, Check List, 2ded. 1882, no. 673. 
Rallus longirostris (nec Bodd. ), C'oues, Key, 1872, 273 ; Check List, 1873, no. 465 ; B. N. "W. 
1874, 536 (excl. syn. pt. ). 
c. saturatus. 
Rallus longirostris saturatus, “ Henshaw, MS.” Ridgw. Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, V. no. 3, July, 
1880, 140 ; Nom. N. Am. B. 1882, no. 571 a. — Coues, Check List, 2d ed. 1882, no. 675. 
d. caribeeus. 
Rallus crepitans and R. longirostris] Aucx. (all West Indian references). 
Rallus longirostris cariboeus, Ridgw. Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, V. no. 3, July, 1880, 140. 
Hab. Salt-water marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States, north — 
casually to Massachusetts, regularly to Connecticut ; West Indies, and coast of Northern South 
America, to Brazil. The geographical races limited as follows : longirostris to Northern South 
America (Cayenne to Bahia) ; caribceus to the West Indies ; saturatus to the Gull coast of the 
United States (Louisiana to Florida), and crepitans to the Atlantic coast ol the United States. 
Sp. Char. Adult : Above, olivaceous-gray, or sometimes even ashy, usually very obsoletely 
striped, sometimes uniform, hut, more rarely (more generally in southern specimens), striped with 
olivaceous or even dusky ; crown and nape uniform brown or dusky ; a brownish white supraloral 
stripe ; side of the head chiefly grayish (sometimes inclining to ashy), darker on the lores, and 
R. longirostris crepitans. 
becoming pale cinnamon or buff on the malar region ; chin and throat white ; rest of the neck, 
with jugulum and breast, pale cinnamon-buff, olivaceous-buff, or, more rarely, dull cinnamon, 
tinged with olive ■ flanks and sides pale olivaceous-gray or brownish slate, barred with white (as 
in obsoletus ) ; axillars and lining of the wing similar, but more narrowly barred with white ; anal 
region and middle of the abdomen plain light buff, grayish, or dusky, barred with white centrally, 
plain white laterally. Wing-coverts usually more brown than other upper parts ; remiges plain 
umber. Downy young : Exactly like that of R. elegans and R. obsoletus. 
Total length, about 14.00-15.00 inches ; wing, 5.40-6.00 ; culmen, 2.10-2.45; least depth of 
bill (through middle), .22-. 28 ; tarsus, 1.85-2.10 ; middle toe, 1.70-2.00. 
Bill brownish (nearly the color of the supraloral stripe), the upper half of the maxilla dusky ; 
iris raw-umber brown ; legs and feet very similar in color to outer webs of primaries (manuscript 
notes on fresh specimens killed in July on Virginia coast). According to Audubon, the fresh 
colors of specimens examined by him were as follows : “ Lower mandible and edges of upper 
yellowish brown ; ridge of upper and tips of both deep brown ; iris pale yellow ; feet pale livid 
gray, tinged with orange about the tibio-tarsal joint ; claws dusky.” 
Rallus longirostris is by far the most variable of the North American species of the genus, the 
variations noted in a large series being plainly local or geographical to a very large degree, but also 
individual to a considerable extent. Examples from the Atlantic coast of the United States (New 
York to North Carolina) are the palest-colored, the upper parts being frequently plain grayish, the 
