Plate LXIV. 
Fig. 7. RALLUS ELEGA NS -Red-breasted Rail. 
The Red-breasted Rail is not an uncommon migrant in the spring and fall, at which times it is 
found about marshes and ponds. In the summer it is less numerous by far than during the migrating 
periods, but it breeds regularly throughout the State, in suitable swamps. I have several times found 
the young in July nearly grown, and from this I infer the nesting time is June. But one brood is 
probably reared during a season. 
LOCALITY : 
About Circleville this Rail builds in the small swampy ponds, places overgrown with saw-grass, 
cat-tails, rushes, white lilies, and other aquatic plants, and presumably is to be found in similar localities 
in other parts of the State. 
POSITION : 
I have never found this nest containing eggs, but I have twice discovered nests which, identifying 
by exclusion, undoubtly belonged to the Red-breasted Rail. These nests were situated on the ground a 
little above the water level, and in every respect except size were like the nest of the Carolina Rail. 
MATERIALS : 
The nests referred to were composed of blades of grass, stalks of smart-weed, and bits of leaves and 
fibres from neighboring plants. They were loosely put together, the materials being matted rather than 
woven. Mr. Maynard, in “Birds of North America,” says of the nest and eggs of this species: “Nests, 
placed on the ground in marshy places, composed of grass, weeds, etc. Eggs, from eight to ten in 
number, oval in form, bluish-white or creamy in color, dotted and spotted sparsely with reddish-brown 
and lilac. Dimensions from 1.15 x 1.55 to 1.25 x 1.75.” 
EGGS: 
It will be seen from the quotation above that eight to ten eggs constitute a full set. Six young 
birds are the most I have seen in any one brood. Eggs in my possession measure from 1.58 to 1.63 in 
long-diameter, by from 1.18 to 1.25 in short-diameter. The common size is about 1.20 x 1.60. The 
ground-color of the shell varies from bluish- or yellowish-white to a decided reddish or flesh tint. The 
markings consist of blotches, spots, and speckles of umber, inclining to brown-madder or burnt sienna. 
Many of the markings are beneath the surface, the color of these appearing of different tints, according 
to their depth. The marks are never very numerous. Sometimes they are confined to the base chiefly, 
sometimes to the point, but more frequently they are quite regularly distributed over the surface. In the 
majority of eggs the ground-color is not very different from that of the egg of the Virginia Rail. 
