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I YELLOW-
RSLLUS NOVEBORuaCENSIS.
Plate XXVII. Fig. 2.
Gaffinula noveboracnswi, LATH. Ind. II, p. 771, sp. 16.
Filica noveboracensis, GMEL. Sy8t. I, p. 701, sp. 15.
.allus ruficollis, VImILL. Gal. Ois. II, p. 168, p1. 266. (A bad figure.)
Rallus noveboracensie, NOB. Cat. birds U S. ID. Syn. sp. 273. ID. Sp. comp.
8p. Phil. 212.
Perdix hudoonica? LATH. Ind. II, p. 655, sp. 41.
Le Rale varii a gorge rousse, VIEILL. NouV. Diet. XVIII, p. 556.
Yellow-breasted Gallinule, LATH. Syn. III, p. 262, sp. 15. ID. Gen. ffwt.
IX, p. 419,
Sp. 30. PENN. Act. Zool. II, sp. 410.
Hudeonian Quail? LATH. Ind. Orn. Suppl. p. 224. ID, Gen. lust. VIII, p. 330,
sp. 72.
American Museum, at New York.
The genus Rail, and that of the Gallinules, are so closely
related, that many authors have either confounded them together,
or by their various definitions and       acceptations made them
to interfere with each other.      Thus, for Latham, Temminck,
and others, the Short-billed Rails, among which ranks the present
species, are Gallinules, although they want that obvious character
upon which Linne founded his natural, though too much extended
group Fulica, and which we also, with Vieillot and others, adopt
as its best representative character, namely, the naked frontal
clypeus.   The genus Rail is therefore very comprehensive and
numerous in species, which are spread over all the globe, and
may with propriety be divided into two subgenera or groups, the
first of which will contain the Long-billed species, under the
more restricted name of Rallus, containing the true Ralli of all