OBSERVATIONS ON THE FARALLON RAIL (PORZANA JAMAICEN-SIS COTURNICULUS Baird).
. BYRobert Ridgway,Curator of the Departtnent of Birds.The type of this species or subspecies, first described in 1874, stillremains unique, the ascribed locality (Farallon Islands, near San Fran-cisco) having been repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, scoured for addi-tional specimens by competent collectors, who unanimously^ assertthat no spot suitable for a bird of this family exists on those islands.All that is now known concerning the history of the type specimen(mounted and now in the National Museum collection) is, that it is oneof four birds presented to the Smithsonian Institution in 1859 (enteredOctober 13) by Mr. T. C. Martin, the locality given being " Farallones,Cal.", without date or other data. The other birds presented at thesame time by Mr. Martin are from various localities, as follows : Agelaiiisguhernator, "S. Francisco;" Titrdus rufopalliatus, S , Tehuautepec, andFrogne chalybea, 9 , Tehuautepec; the last two collected by ColonelGrayson.The bird in question was originally described as a variety or geo-graphical race of Porzana jamaicensis, and it has been given that rankin the A. O. U. Check List. In his "Birds and Eggs from the Faral-lon Islands " * Mr. Walter E. Bryant refers to it as follows
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Farallon Kail.?Kegarding the claim of the unique specimen of this bird as avalid variety, there does not appear to be sufficient grounds for its retention as aseparate form. In the light of Mr. Emerson's investigations, and that of others whohave visited the islands and found no rails or suitable places for them to live, thereseems to be but one conclusion to draw concerning it, and that is that it is anabnormal specimen of P. jamaicensis.Whatever doubt there may be, however, of the present occurrenceof the bird on the Farallons, or even of the type specimen having re-ally been obtained there, there can not, I think, be any question as toits distinctness from F. jamaicensis. That it is not an '* abnormal speci-men" of the latter is almost certain, from the fact that specimens of P.jamaicensis from the mainland of California do not, apiiarently, pre-sent any differences either of size or coloration from those from theAtlantic States, the West Indies, or Chili, notwithstanding numerousexamples have been comiiared. The possibility of its identity with alittle-known species inhabiting the Galapagos Islands has, however,
'Proceedings of the California Academy of Sciences, 2d ser., vol. i, 1888, pp. 25-50.Proceedings National Museum, Vol. XIII, No. 828. 309
310 THE FARALLON RAIL?RIDGWAY.
recently occurred to me, though unfortunately I am unable, from lackof specimens, to settle the matter. In tlie "Zoology of the Beagle"(1841), Mr. John Gouhl described a Zapornia sinlonota from a speci-men obtained on James Island, Galapagos, by Mr. Darwiu, the de-scription being accompanied by a colored figure (plate 49). This de-scription and colored figure agree closely in certain characters withthe Farallon Rail, the back being without white spots, and those ofthe wings and posterior under parts much smaller and less numerousthan in P. jamaicensis. Additional specimens were obtained in 1868on Indefatigable Island, by Dr. Habel, these being mentioned by Mr.Salvin in his important paper " On the Avifauna of the GalapagosArchipelago" (Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, vol.IX, pt. ix, 1876, pp. 447-510, pis. 84-89).The descriptions given by Messrs. Gould and Salvin, respectively,differ considerably, especially as to the color of the upper parts. Mr.Gould's is as foUo^ys
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Head and all the under surface blackisb-gray ; all the upper surface dark reddishbrown, fading oflf on the rump into deep grayish-black, the wings, hinder part offlanks, and under tail-coverts slightly sprinkled with white; bill blackish-brown;feet, reddish ; iris, bright scarlet.Mr. Salvin's description (translated from the Latin) is as follows :
^ (Indefatigable Island) blackish-cinereous, nearly uniform, the back and outersurface of the wings washed with oily rufous; the lower flanks and under tail-cov-erts obsoletely spotted with white, the wings externally, back posteriorly, and rumpsometimes marked in the same way ; iris scarlet ; feet olive-brown ; bill black, " * *05s.?Species similar to P. jamaicensis, but with the nape entirely blackish-cinereousand the dorsal spots almost obsolete ; allied to P. tabuensis so far as colors are con-cerned, but to be distinguished at the first glance by the short tail.Regarding individual variations, Mr. Darwin says that "with re-spect to the specific description I must observe that in one of thespecimens the small white spots on the wings and abdomen are want-ing. This is not a sexual distinction, but possibly may be owing toimmaturity." Mr. Salvin also says that " a specimen in Dr. Babel'scollection has no spots on the wings and lower back, but does nototherwise differ from the rest of his examples." He adds that " thesespots are somewhat variable, being well defined in some, obsolete inothers, and entirely wanting in a few;" and that "in none are they sowell developed as in P. jamaicensis, the nearest ally of the presentbird."Unfortunately I have not been able to compare specimens of P. spil-onota with the type of P. jamaicensis coturniculus, but the descriptionsand plate referred to above show that the two are very closely related
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much more closely, indeed, than either of them is to P. jamaicensis.Points in which they agree and at the same time differ from P. jamai-censis consist mainly in the restriction, both as to size and the surfacewhich they cover, of the white spots on the wings and posterior underparts, these markings always covering the back in P. jamaicensis, while
^'^issj)!"'] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 311
ill P. spilonota and P. jamaicensis coturniculus the back is entirelyunspotted.The type specimen of the Farallon Rail is probably in autumnal orimmature plumage, which in P. jamaicensis differs from that of the fullyadult bird in spring in having the chin and throat dull whitish, insteadof deep slate-gray, like the breast and belly. The plate of P. sjnlonotain the " Zoology of the Beagle" represents a bird in full plumage, thechin and throat being concolor with the other lower parts, but doubt-less younger birds of this species also have the chin and throat whitish.Except in the color of the chin and throat and the larger dimensions,there is nothing in the original description of P. sjrilonota that wouldnot exactly fit P. jamaicensis coturniculus; but Mr. Salvin's description,taken from examples from a different island (Indefatigable), will notapply in one particular, namely, in the color of the nape, which is saidto be entirely blackish cinereous, whereas in P. jamaicensis coturniculusthe entire hind-neck is exactly the same deep brown color as in P.jamaicensis.As stated above, I have been unable to examine specimens of P.spilonota; but I think there can be no doubt that the Farallon birdis decidedly more closely allied to that of the Galapagos than to thewidely-distributed continental species, Californian (mainland) examplesof which appear to be exactly like those of the Eastern United States,the West Indies, and Chili.* In view of these facts, the technicalname of the Farallon Kail should be changed by the elimination of themiddle term, leaving it to stand as Porzana coturniculus (Baird) untilits relationship to P. spilonota can be more definitely ascertained.Recent explorations have considerably increased the number ofspecies of water birds common to the Galapagos and California (orLower California), Sula gossi (Galapagos to Lower California) andPelecanus californicus (Galapagos to Oregon) being among the number,while Hcematopus galajjagensis and H.frazari (of Lower California) arehardly separable. May not, therefore, this puzzling rail, of which itseems to be impossible to obtain a second example, prove to be astraggler of another Galapagoan species'? Or, as an alternative possi-bility, might it not have been a straggler from one of the more southernCalifornian islands, of the Santa Barbara group'? This question bringsto mind the case of the Swallow-tailed Gull {Creagrus furcatus), theoriginal specimen of which is said to have been obtained at Monterey,California, while no example has subsequently been taken north ofthe Galapagos Islands, the only certainly known breeding-ground ofthe species. It is known that localities of the specimens obtained bythe Venus expedition were more or less mixed in the process of label-ling; still, in view of what we now know of the distribution of waterbirds along the Pacific coast of America, the correctness of the allegedlocality of the original G. furcatus does not seem so very improbable.
* See Water Birds of North America, Vol. i, p. 378.