File:The birds of New England and adjacent states - containing descriptions of the birds of New England, and adjoining states and provinces, arranged by a long-approved classification and nomenclature with (14747649151).jpg

Identifier: birdsofnewenglan00samu (find matches)
Title: The birds of New England and adjacent states : containing descriptions of the birds of New England, and adjoining states and provinces, arranged by a long-approved classification and nomenclature ... with illustrations of many species of the birds, accurate figures of their nests and eggs
Year: 1875 (1870s)
Authors: Samuels, Edward Augustus, 1836-1908
Subjects: Birds -- New England Birds -- Nests
Publisher: Boston : Noyes, Holmes, and company
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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s generally inserted more nearly on the same level with the anteriorones, touching the ground for most of its extent. The species pick up their food on the surface, and do not probe the soft mud insearch of it. The North-American species of this tribe are few in number, though very abun-dant in individuals. Their habit of close concealment among the reeds and grassof marshy places renders them very difficult of detection, except when their abodesare more or less submerged. Sub-Family Rallin^. — The Rails.RALLUS, LiNN^us. Rnlhis, LiNNxEUS, Syst. Nat. Bill longer than the head, rather slender, compressed; upper mandible slightlycun-ed; nostrils in a long groove, and with a large membrane; wings short; tertiaryquills long, frequently longer than the primaries; tail very short; legs moderate;tarsus shorter than the middle toe, and covered on all sides with transverse scales;toes long and rather slender; inner toe rather shorter than the outer; hind toe sb.atand weak. 1 See Introduction.
Text Appearing After Image:
THE CLAPPER RAIL. 471 EALLUS ELEGANS. —Audubon. Marsh Hen. Jtallus eUgans, Audubon. Ora. Biog., III. (1837) 27.Rallus crepitans, Wilson. Am. Oru., VII. (1813). Description. Upper parts olive-brown, with longitudinal stripes of brownish-black, mostnumerous on the back; line from the base of the bill over the eye dull orange-yel-low; space before and behind the eye brownish-cinereous; throat and lower eyelidwhite; neck before and breast bright rufous-chestnut; sides and abdomen, and undertail coverts, with transverse bands of bro^vuish-black and white, the dark bandsbeing the wider; tibi« dull yellowish-white, with spots and transverse bars of ashy-brown; upper wing coverts reddish-chestnut; under wing coverts black, with trans-verse lines of white. Sexes alike. Total length (from tip of bill to end of tail), about seventeen inches; wing, sixand tifty one-hundredths; tail, three inches. This beautiful bird is so exceedingly rare in New Eng-land, that it can be regarded only as a stra

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