512 BIRDS—RALLIDZ. 
deepest on the breast where many feathers are dark tipped ; flanks with numerous white 
bars; crissum varied with black, white and ruf us. Small, aboat 6 long; wing, 34; 
tail, 14; bill, 4; tarsus, $; middle toe and claw, 14. 
Habitat, Eastern North America. North to Hadsen’s Bay. but in New England not 
observed beyond Massachusetts. Apparently nowhere abundant. Winters in the South- 
ern States. . 
Not common spring and fall migrant; probably summer resident. 
The Yellow Rail, otherwise known as the Yellow-breasted Rail or Upland 
Rail, is the least common of all species positively identified in this State. 
It has been taken in the vicinity of Cleveland, where it is known as 
the Upland Rail, frequenting higher ground than that usually affected by 
members of this family. Mr. Langdon gives it as rare in the vicinity 
of Cincinnati. Dr. Howard I. Jones, to whom I am indebted for speci- 
mens, has taken it frequently at Circleville, both in fall and spring, and 
considers it nearly as common as other species and believes that it breeds 
there, which is probably the case throughout the State. 
Eggs rich, warm, buffy-biown, marked at the greater end with a cluster 
of reddish-chocolate dots and spots, and measuring 1.10 by .82. 
Mr. Maynard describing a Massachuset's specimen taken on high land 
twenty or thirty rods from a meadow at the foot of a hill, says, “Itis a 
female and ditlers from any which I have seen, having a broad white edg- 
ing to the secondaries.” A specimen obtained at Circleville, by Dr. Howard 
K. Jones and presented to me, has the outer secondaries white-tipped for 
an inch or more and the adjacent quills barred with white, the under 
tail-coverts deep purplish chestnut. Hither these markings have been 
overlooked by previous describers or the species varies much in color 
and pattern in these particulars. Nuttall describes the bird as uniformly 
having white-tipped secondaries. 
Sub family GALLINULIN”. Gallinules. 
General form much as in Rallinw but body less compressed. Ferehead shielded by a 
broad, bare, horny plate. Toes longer than the tarsus. 
Genus GALLINULA. Brisson. 
Toes margined with a thin, though evident, membrane. Nosirils linear. 
GALLINULA GALEATA Bon. 
E'‘lorida Gallinule. 
Gallinula chlorepus, KIRTLAND, Ohio Geolog. Sury., 1838, 165,185; Am, Journ. Sci., and 
Arts, xl., 1041, 22. 
