364 
ALECTORIDES. 
region black, with a few of the feathers margined with brownish olive. Wing-coverts and wings 
nearly as in adult, a little duller and darker, perhaps. Superciliary line obscure ashy. Throat 
ashy white, finely spotted with black. Central region of lower breast and abdomen, with a few of 
the feathers on the sides, tinged with white. Anal region and crissum dull reddish chestnut. In 
my cabinet, from Cambridge, Mass., August, 1875. Several other specimens of corresponding ages 
agree closely with the one above described. A male, however (Cambridge, Aug. 9, 1875), differs 
in having a faint reddish wash over the white on the breast and abdomen” (Brewstek, Bull. Nutt. 
Orn. Club, Jan. 1879, p. 45). 
Total length, about 7.50 inches ; wing, 3.90-4.25 ; culrnen, 1.45-1.60 ; tarsus, 1.30-1.40 ; mid- 
dle toe, 1.20-1.40. “Bill dark brown, the lower mandible and edges of upper yellowish brown ; 
iris bright red ; feet yellowish brown tinged with olive ; claws more dusky” (Audubon). 
This species is very much like R. elegans in miniature, being exceedingly similar to that species 
in coloration. Close examination, however, reveals several important differences, the more obvious 
of which are the following : the whole plumage is darker ; the sides of the head more uniformly 
and distinctly plumbeous ; the sides and abdomen are cinnamon, like the breast, instead of being 
respectively barred, like the flanks, and plain buff or whitish ; the lining of the wing is not barred 
like the flanks, but has dusky and white irregularly mixed, the latter color being on the border 
and tips of the feathers. There is apparently more of individual variation in this than in any 
of the larger species, scarcely two examples being closely alike. The chin and throat may be 
distinctly white, or the cinnamon may extend forward entirely to the bill ; some specimens have 
the lores decidedly dusky, others, clear plumbeous, like the auriculars ; the crissum is sometimes 
plain cinnamon, the concealed bases of the feathers dusky, but oftener is white, tinged with cinna- 
mon. One example (an adult male, No. 84677, U. S. Nat. Mus , Riverdale, 111., May 3, E. W. 
Nelson) has the flanks dark brown, with the bars nearly obsolete. No. 7057 (National Museum 
Collection), from St. Louis, Mo., also an adult male, collected May 6 (W. S. Wood), has the lower 
parts dull grayish brown, browner on the breast, almost slaty on the abdomen and tibiae. There 
seems to be no geographical variation, however, notwithstanding the extensive range of the species, 
specimens from Guatemala, Mazatlan, Sonora, California, and Washington Territory being quite 
identical with others from the Eastern United States. 
The Virginia Rail has the most extended distribution of any of this family, being 
found, at certain seasons, throughout the entire United States, from Florida to the 
extreme eastern limits of Maine, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It occurs in 
great numbers in Canada, especially in the western portion, and has been found 
breeding as far north as Big Island by Mr. B. Ross. It is also very abundant in Illi- 
nois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and others of the Western and Northwestern States. It 
is a winter resident of Cuba, but is not known to breed there ; nor is it given by 
either Gosse or Marsh as being found in Jamaica. In Central America it appears to 
be rare, only a single specimen being on record as noticed there ; this is mentioned 
by Salvin as having been taken at Antigua, in Guatemala, in September, 1859, on 
one of the cochineal plantations. This species is abundant in the winter months in 
