136 
YELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. 
RALLUS JVOVEBORACENSIS. 
Plate XXVII. Fig. 2. 
Gallinula noveboracensis , Lath. Ind. II, p. 771, sp. 16. 
Fulica noveboracensis , Gmel. Syst. I, p. 701, sp. 15. 
Rallus ruficollis, Vieill. Gal. Ois. II, p. 168, pi. 266. (A bad figure.) 
Rallus noveboracensis , Nob. Cat. birds U S. Id. Syn. sp. 273. Id. Sp. comp, 
sp. Phil. 212. 
Perdix hudsonica? Lath. Ind. II, p. 655, sp. 41. 
Le Rale varie a gorge rousse , Vie ill. Nouv. Did. XVIII, p. 556. 
Yellow-breasted Gallinule, Lath. Syn. Ill, p. 262, sp. 15. Id. Gen. Hist. IX, p. 419, 
sp. 30. Penn. Arcl. Zool. II, sp. 410. 
Hudsonian Quail? Lath. Ind. Orn. Suppl. p. 224. Id. Gen. Hist. VIII, p. 330, sp. 72. 
American Museum , at New York. 
The genus Rail, and that of the Gallinules, are so closely 
related, that many authors have either confounded them together, 
or by their various definitions and acceptations made them 
to interfere with each other. Thus, for Latham, Temminck, 
and others, the Short-billed Rails, among which ranks the present 
species, are Gallinules, although they want that obvious character 
upon which Linne founded his natural, though too much extended 
group Fulica , and which we also, with Vieillot and others, adopt 
as its best representative character, namely, the naked frontal 
clypeus. The genus Rail is therefore very comprehensive and 
numerous in species, which are spread over all the globe, and 
may with propriety be divided into two subgenera or groups, the 
first of which will contain the Long-billed species, under the 
more restricted name of Rallus, containing the true Ralli of all 
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