OBSERVATIONS ON THE FARALLON RAIL (PORZANA JAMAICEN 
SIS COTURNICULUS Baird). 
BY 
Curator of the Department of Birds. 
Robert Ridgway, 
The type of this species or subspecies, first described in 1874, still 
remains 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 assert 
that 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 one 
of four birds presented to the Smithsonian Institution in 1859 (entered 
October 13) by Mr. T. C. Martin, the locality given being " Farallones, 
Cal.", without date or other data. The other birds presented at the 
same time by Mr. Martin are from various localities, as follows: Agelaius 
gubernator, "S. Francisco;" Turdus rufopalliatus, $ , Tehuantepec, and 
Progne chaly bea, 2 , Tehuantepec; the last two collected by Colonel 
Grayson. 
The bird in question was originally described as a variety or geo- 
graphical race of Porzana jamaicensis, and it has been given that rank 
in 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: 
Farallon Rail.-Regarding the claim of the unique specimen of this bird as a 
valid variety, there does not appear to be sufficient grounds for its retention as a 
separate form. In the light of Mr. Emerson's investigations, and that of others who 
have visited the islands and found no rails or suitable places for them to live, there 
seems to be but one conclusion to draw concerning it, and that is that it is an 
abnormal specimen of P. jamaicensis. 
Whatever doubt there may be, however, of the present occurrence 
of 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 to 
its distinctness from P. 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, apparently, pre- 
sent any differences either of size or coloration from those from the 
Atlantic States, the West Indies, or Chili, notwithstanding numerous 
examples have been compared. The possibility of its identity with a 
little-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 lack 
of specimens, to settle the matter. In the "Zoology of the Beagle'7 
(1841), Mr. John Gould described a Zapornia spilonota from a speci- 
men obtained on James Island, Galapagos, by Mr. Darwin, the de- 
scription being accompanied by a colored figure (plate 49). This de- 
scription and colored figure agree closely in certain characters with 
the Farallon Rail, the back being without white spots, and those of 
the wings and posterior under parts much smaller and less numerous 
than in P. jamaicensis. Additional specimens were obtained in 18G8 
on Indefatigable Island, by Dr. Habel, these being mentioned by Mr. 
Salvin in his important paper "On the Avifauna of the Galapagos 
Archipelago" (Transactions of the Zoological Society of London, vol. 
IX, pt. ix, 1876, pp. 447-510, pls. 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 follows: 
Head and all the under surface blackish-gray; all the upper surface dark reddish 
brown, fading off on the rump into deep grayish-black, the wings, hinder part of 
flanks, 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 outer 
surface 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 rump 
sometimes marked in the same way ; iris scarlet: feet olive-brown; bill black. * * * 
Obs.-Species similar to P. jamaicensis, but with the nape entirely blackish-cinereous 
and 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 the 
specimens the small white spots on the wings and abdomen are want- 
ing. This is not a sexual distinction, but possibly may be owing to 
immaturity." Mr. Salvin also says that " a specimen in Dr. Habel's 
collection has no spots on the wings and lower back, but does not 
otherwise differ from the rest of his examples." He adds that " these 
spots are somewhat variable, being well defined in some, obsolete in 
others, and entirely wanting in a fewand that " in none are they so 
well developed as in P. jamaicensis, the nearest ally of the present 
bird." 
Unfortunately I have not been able to compare specimens of P. spil- 
onota with the type of P. jamaicensis coturniculus, but the descriptions 
and plate referred to above show that the two are very closely related- 
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 surface 
which they cover, of the white spots on the wings and posterior under 
parts, these markings always covering the back in P. jamaicensis, while VOL. XIII, I 
1889. J 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
311 
in P. spilonota and P. jamaicensis coturniculus the back is entirely 
unspotted. 
The type specimen of the Farallon Rail is probably in autumnal or 
immature plumage, which in P. jamaicensis differs from that of the fully 
adult bird in spring in having the chin and throat dull whitish, instead 
of deep slate-gray, like the breast and belly. The plate of P. spilonota 
in the " Zoology of the Beagle" represents a bird in full plumage, the 
chin 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. spilonota that would 
not exactly fit P. jamaicensis coturniculus; but Mr. Salvin's description, 
taken from examples from a different island (Indefatigable), will not 
apply in one particular, namely, in the color of the nape, which is said 
to be entirely blackish cinereous, whereas in P. jamaicensis coturniculus 
the 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 bird 
is decidedly more closely allied to that of the Galapagos than to the 
widely-distributed continental species, Californian (mainland) examples 
of which appear to be exactly like those of the Eastern United States, 
the West Indies, and Chili.* In view of these facts, the technical 
name of the Farallon Bail should be changed by the elimination of the 
middle term, leaving it to stand as Porzana coturniculus (Baird) until 
its relationship to P. spilonota can be more definitely ascertained. 
Recent explorations have considerably increased the number of 
species of water birds common to the Galapagos and California (or 
Lower California), Sula gossi (Galapagos to Lower California) and 
Pelecanus californicus (Galapagos to Oregon) being among the number, 
while Hecmatopus galapagensis and EL.frazari (of Lower California) are 
hardly separable. May not, therefore, this puzzling rail, of which it 
seems to be impossible to obtain a second example, prove to be a 
straggler of another Galapagoan species? Or, as an alternative possi- 
bility, might it not have been a straggler from one of the more southern 
Californian islands, of the Santa Barbara group? This question brings 
to mind the case of the Swallow-tailed Gull (Creagrus furcatus), the 
original specimen of which is said to have been obtained at Monterey, 
California, while no example has subsequently been taken north of 
the Galapagos Islands, the only certainly known breeding-ground of 
the species. It is known that localities of the specimens obtained by 
the 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 water 
birds along the Pacific coast of America, the correctness of the alleged 
locality of the original C. furcatus does not seem so very improbable. 
* See Water Birds of North America, Vol. I, p. 378.