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RAILS, COOTS, ETC.: VIRGINIA RAIL 
VIRGINIA RAIL: Rallus virginianus Linnaeus 
Description. — Length: 8.1-10.5 inches, wing 3.9-4.2, tail 1.5-2, bill 1.4-1.6, 
tarsus 1.3-1.4, middle toe 1.2-1.4. Bill long and slender, slightly downcurved; tail 
short. Adults: Side of head gray; upperparts olive-brown, streaked with black; 
wing with a rufous patch; throat and breast cinnamon-brown; 
flanks black, barred with white, iris red, bill with lower 
mandible reddish, ridge and tip dusky; legs and feet appar¬ 
ently variable, from flesh to reddish or yellowish brown 
(Forbush). Young in juvenal plumage: Mainly black, 
marked or mottled with white or brown, but rufous wing 
patch always present; bill pink, black ringed (McLean). 
Range.- —Breeds from British Columbia, southern 
Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, and New Brunswick 
south to North Carolina, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado Fig. 39. Virginia Rail 
(probably New Mexico), Arizona, Mexico, and Lower Cal¬ 
ifornia; winters from British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, Utah, Colorado, 
Arkansas, Illinois, and southeastern states south to Guatemala, southern Mexico, 
and Lower California. 
State Records. [At Lake Burford, in the spring of 1918, several were heard 
calling up to June 12, and one was flushed, so it is possible that one pair at least nested 
(Wetmore). On May 3, 1920, several were observed at marshes and lakes four miles 
north of Albuquerque. On September 3, 1920, they were found abundant in the 
same place and several were secured (Ligon).] Although there is no winter record 
for the Virginia Rail in New Mexico, it is probable that it occasionally remains there 
through the cold weather, as it is known to do in Colorado. 
There are only a few migration records. One was seen near Albuquerque August 
31, 1915 (Leopold), one near the head of the Rio Laguna August 26, 1850 (Wood- 
house), one in the valley of the Pecos near latitude 32° (Pope), one heard on the Mes- 
calero Indian Reservation September 11, 1902, and one found near the mouth of the 
Rio San Jose, a few miles above the town of Rio Puerco, September 7, 1905 (Hol¬ 
lister). In the spring of 1854, one was seen near Fort Thorn (Henry).—W. W. 
Cooke. 
Nest. In a grassy marsh, made of grass. Eggs: 7 to 12, buffy, sparingly and 
irregularly spotted with brown. 
Pood. Aquatic insects, earthworms, caterpillars, locusts, grasshoppers, beetles, 
slugs, fresh water snails, small snakes and fishes, wild rice, seeds, and tender shoots 
of water plants. 
General Habits. —The curious barred-flank pattern characteristic 
of the various rails, is peculiarly “obliterative,” as Abbott Thayer 
expresses it, for contrasted as it is with the gray or brown of the fore 
underparts, it destroys the figure of the bird, while carrying the eye to 
the background of light reeds and dark interspaces. 
Both coloration and habit make the rails the most easily overlooked 
of birds, for much of their time is spent inside the sheltering cover of 
reeds or marsh grass, but perhaps for this very reason their call notes 
keep their relatives informed of their whereabouts. One of the calls of 
the Virginia Rail is given by Mr. Brewster as “a guttural cut , cut , cutta - 
cutta-cutta , repeated at brief intervals, often for hours in succession . . . 
