YELLOW RAIL. 511 
_ dried bottoms of ponds, cornfields, and marshy places. In their habits, like 
all others of this family, they are retiring, skulking like rats in run-ways 
at the roots of grass and weeds. They are with difficulty flushed, and 
when on the wing, their flight is short, extremely slow and labored, just 
clearing the tops of the grass or weeds. In alighting they drop suddenly 
as if shot, and conceal themselves or quickly run for safety to a consider- 
able distance. 
The nest of this species, as of all others of the family, is placed on the 
ground. The eggs are eight or ten in number, greenish or olive-drab, 
with markings of reddish-brown. They measure about 1.20 by .90. 
PoRZANA NOVEBORACENSIS (Gm.) Cass. 
Wellow Halil. 
Rallus noveboracensis, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Surv., 1838, 165, 185. 
Porzana noveboracensis, WHEATON, Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1860, 369, 378; Reprint, 1861, 11, 
20; Food of Birds, ets., Ohio Agric. Rep. for 1874, 573; Reprint, 1%75, 13.—Lane- 
- DON, Cat. Birds of Cin. 1877, 16; Revised List, Journ. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., i, 1879, 
184; Reprint, 18; Field Notes, ib., ii, 1880, 127. 
Fulica noveboracensis, GMELIN, Syst. Nat., i, 1788, 701. 
Rallus noveboracensis, BONAPARTE, Sp. List, 1827, 213. 
Porzana noveboracensis, CASSIN, Birds, N. Am., 1858, 750. 
Above, varied with blackish and ochres-brown, and thiskly marked with narrow 
white semicircles and transverse bars; below, pale ochrey-brown, fading on the belly, 
PoRZANA JAMAICENSIS (Gm.) Cass. 
Black Evail. 
Porzana jamaicensis, LANGDON, Cat. Birds of Cin. 1877, 16; Revised List, Journ. Cin. 
Svc. Nat. Hist, i, 1879, 189; Reprint, <3. 
Rallus jamaicensis, GMELIN, Syst. Nat., 1, 1788, 718. 
Porzana jamaicensis, CASSIN, Birds N. Am., 1853, 749. 
Blackish, head and under- parts dark-slaty, paler or whitening on the throat; above 
speckled with white, the cervix and upper back varied with daik-chestunut; lower 
belly, crissum, flanks and axillars, white-barred; quills with white spots. Very small, 
about 54; wing, 22-3; tail, 14; tarsus, $. 
Habitat, South America to Chili. Central America. West Indies. In North America 
to New Jersey and Kansas, rare. Illinois, breeding (Nelson). 
Mr. Langdon introduces this bird to our acquaintance in his Catalogue of the 
Birds of the Vicinity of Cincinnati, in which he says, ‘‘a Rail shot by myself, near 
Madisonville, several years ago, I now think was this species.” In addition to this, Dr. 
Howard E. Jones is almost positive that ho has killed it in the vicinity of Circle- 
ville. It is also reported from Northern Ohio but of this I have not es yet obtained 
positive evidence. As Mr Langdon omits it from his later list, we must wait more posi- 
tive identification than the above. 
