THE CLAPPER RAIL. 
173 
about the same breadth ; its lateral muscles very prominent, the left large, 
the inferior muscle well pronounced ; the epithelium dense, hard, of a bright 
red colour, and forming two oblong flat grinding plates, with intermediate 
rug®. The proventricular glands are cylindrical, 1 twelfth in length, form- 
ing a belt 9 twelfths in breadth. The contents of the stomach are fragments 
of small shells. The intestine, f g h, is 31£ inches long ; its average width 
4£ twelfths ; rectum, bed, Fig. 2, 3 inches long ; coeca, b e, 3£ inches in^ 
.ength, their width for an inch and a quarter, 1 \ twelfths ; cloaca globular, 
nearly 1 inch in diameter. 
The trachea is 6 inches long, flattened, its breadth at the upper part 4 
twelfths, soon diminishing to 3 twelfths, and so remaining to near the end ; 
the rings ossified, 145 in number ; the last rings contracted to 14 twelfths. 
Bronchi moderate, the half rings about 20, very slender and cartilaginous. 
The sternum in this, as in the other Rails and Gallinules, has the body 
extremely narrow, with two very deep and narrow notches at its posterior 
extremity, the crest moderately elevated, and extending its whole length ; 
the furcula very narrow and slender, the coracoid bones little diverging and 
of moderate strength. In these respects, the sternal apparatus agrees with 
that of the Gallinules and Coots, and presents a strong affinity to that of the 
Scolopaceous Courlan, in which the body of the sternum, though much 
broader, is of the same form, and the crest perfectly similar. In the Rails, 
Gallinules, and Coots, the innutritious part of the food, whether fragments 
of shells, or husks of seeds, passes into the intestine, not being ejected by 
vomiting, in which respect the birds of this family are analogous to the 
Gallinaceous group, of which the coeca attain the maximum size, while in 
the Rails and Gallinules these organs are next in development. It is not 
merely a vague and distant analogy that the Rallince. thus present to the 
Gallinaceous birds, but a direct gradation, insomuch that they might with 
more propriety be considered as the aquatic group of the Rasores, the Coots 
forming the extreme part of the series. 
I found this species exceedingly abundant, and breeding along the shores 
of the Gulf of Mexico, from the mouth of the Mississippi to Galveston 
Island, in Texas. 
Vol. Y. 
24 
