RAIL. 
231 
and whole chin, pure white, bounded by a band of black, 
which descends and spreads broadly over the throat ; the eye 
is dark hazel ; crown, neck, and upper part of the breast, red 
brown; sides of the neck, spotted with white and black on 
a reddish brown ground ; back, scapulars, and lesser coverts, 
red brown, intermixed with ash, and sprinkled with black; 
tertials, edged with yellowish white ; wings, plain dusky ; 
lower part of the breast and belly, pale yellowish white, 
beautifully marked with numerous curving spots, or arrow- 
heads of black ; tail, ash, sprinkled with reddish brown ; legs, 
very pale ash. 
The female differs in having the chin and sides of the head 
yellowish brown, in which dress it has been described as a 
different kind. There is, however, only one species of Quail 
at present known within the United States. 
RAIL RALLUS CAROLINUS Plate XL VIII. Fig. 1. 
Soree, Catesb. i. 70. — Arct. Zool. p. 491, No. 409. — Little American Water-hen, 
j Edw. 144. — Le Rale de Virginie, Buff. viii. 165. 
CREX CAROLINUS. — Bonaparte.* 
Rallus (Crex) Carolinus, Bonap. Synop. p. 335. 
Of all our land or water fowl, perhaps none afford the 
sportsmen more agreeable amusement, or a more delicious 
repast, than the little bird now before us. This amusement 
is indeed temporary, lasting only two or three hours in the 
day, for four or five weeks in each year ; but, as it occurs in 
* Almost every ornithologist has been at variance with regard to the pro- 
priety and limitation of the genera Rallus , Crex, and Gallinula. They appear 
to be sufficiently distinct, and not to run more into each other than many other 
groups, and, in the present state of ornithology, their separation is indis- 
pensable. Crex may be characterized by the bill shorter than the head ; strong 
at the base, and tapering ; the forehead feathered ; the common Land Rail, 
or Corncrake of Europe, and our present species, may be taken as very good 
