THE VIRGIN [AH RAIL. 
179 
Length 91 . 
Young bird fledged. 
When fully fledged the young does not differ materially in colour from 
the old, the tints being merely somewhat duller. 
In colouring, this species is so nearly allied to R. elegans, that the 
description of the one might pass very well for that of the other ; the 
principal difference being that the sides of the hea^ are grey in the former, 
and dusky in the latter. Of course, the difference in size and habits' is 
sufficient to prevent their being confounded together. 
In an adult male, the width of the mouth is only 3 twelfths ; on the palate 
are two papillate ridges, then anteriorly a single series of strong reversed 
papillae, and towards the end a median ridge. The tongue is 1 incli 2 
twelfths in length, very slender, broadly channelled above in its whole 
.ength, horny beneath, the tip narrow, thin-edged, and slightly slit. The 
oesophagus is 3 inches 10 twelfths long, 3 twelfths in width ; the proventri- 
culus ovate, 3J twelfths in breadth. The stomach is of moderate size, 10 
twelfths long, 11 twelfths broad ; its lateral muscles very large, as are the 
tendons, the lower muscle prominent ; the epithelium dense, bright red, with 
numerous longitudinal rugae, being thus less adapted for grinding than that 
of the Sora Rail. The contents are numerous fragments of small shells, and 
remains of insects. The lobes of the liver are very unequal, the left 1 inch, 
the right 1£ inches in length. The intestine is 18 inches long, its average 
width 2£ twelfths ; the coeca 1 inch 7 twelfths long, 2h twelfths in width, 
rounded at the end, 1 inch 10 twelfths from the extremity ; the cloaca 
globular, 10 twelfths in diameter. 
The trachea is 3 inches long, much flattened, from 1£ twelfths to 1 twelfth 
in breadth ; the rings feeble, divided as in the Sora Rail, and 120 in 
number ; bronchi moderate, of 15 half rings. 
This species also I found in Texas, and from thence to the mouths of the 
Mississippi. 
