--In 1963 I obtained two Black Rails (Laterallus }amaicensis) 17 miles northwest of Monkey River, British Honduras. A male was collected on 29 June; it weighed 35.0 gm and its testes measured 2 X 4 and 2 X 3 min. The following day a female was taken; it weighed 39.9 gm and had large ova (9 X 10 and 7 X 7 ram). The female was unquestionably in breeding condition. There are no published records of nesting Black Rails in Mxico (excluding Baja California) or Central America. Black Rails inhabited at least a portion of several square miles of open savanna at an eleva- tion of 100 feet between Deep River and Bladen Branch of the Monkey River. Although the high and low sections of the savanna where rails were found differ in elevation by six feet, the area is poorly drained. The average annual rainfall is over 140 inches. During much of the year the savan- na is very wet, but the months of February through May are usually rather dry. In 1963 rains did not begin until late June, and at the time the Black Rails were collected there was no standing water in the savanna. The grasses Sporobolus cubensis, Paspalum pulckellum, and Mesosetum fili- ]olium and the sedges Rkynckospora globosa, R. barbara, and R. cyperoides predominated in the savanna. Most grasses and sedges were from 10 to 20 inches tall. A few chapafro (Curatella ameri- cana) and nanze (Byrsonima crassi]olia) were widely scattered in the area. Oaks (Quercus oleoides) occasionally formed dusters not exceeding a height of 30 inches. Pines (Pinus caribea) surrounded the open savanna. The Black Rails were difficult to flush in the knee-high savanna vegetation and were not seen except when they flew. They frequently uttered a rapid peep-peep followed immediately by a low, almost guttural chum. My imitation of this call would often be followed by an answer from a hidden bird a few feet from me. Another call consisted of a low clucking note. I do not know if one or both sexes made the calls. In a mapped study area of 21.6 acres divided into 12 qnadrats of 1.8 acres, I recorded at least 10 Black Rails in 7 of the quadrats in the course. of 12 hours of observations. My assistant, Angelo Palmisano, spent many hours traversing the savanna in attempts to flush the rails, and it was by this technique that he collected the two birds. The Ruddy Crake (Laterallus tuber) was common in the brushy thickets at the edge of the savanna, but it never entered the open regions frequented by the Black Rails. Short-billed Marsh Wrens (Cistotkorus platensis) were the most common birds in the savanna. Grasshopper Sparrows (Ammodramus savannarum) and Botteri Sparrows (Aimopkila botteri) were also residents, but they preferred higher parts of the savanna. The American Ornithologists' Union Check-fist (Sth ed., 1957:158) fists two North American races of the Black Rail: L. j. jamaicensis in the eastern part of the United States and L. . coturni- culus on the Padtic coast south to northern Baja California. In an effort to identify the subsperes of the British Honduran spedmens, I examined 13 males and eight females of L. ]. ]amaicensis and 18 males and 17 females of L. ]. coturniculus. Friedmann (Birds of North and Middle America, Bull. U.S. Nat. Mus. 50 pt. 9, 1941:153-160) considered the sexes similar in appearance. In the series that I examined, most females were fighter on the throat and upper breast than were the males. On the basis of this character, 2 of 32 spedmens labeled as males could be mistaken as females and 4 of 26 of the females resembled males. Males and females are not significantly dif- ferent in size (table 1 and fig. 1). Friedmann (op. cit.) compared L. . }amaicensis with L. . coturniculus and stated that the latter is smaller, has a more slender bill, is more deeply colored below, and has the brown of the upper parts more rulescent and more extensive. I found the color characteristics to be poorly de- fined when spedmens of similar museum age were compared. However, slight color differences between the races do exist and can be recognized when series are compared. I could match the British Honduran birds with some specimens of each subsperes on the basis of color characters. Measurements (table 1) do indicate that L. ]. coturniculus has a smaller wing and, to a lesser ex- 4.5 0 male L.j. jamaicensis ß female L.j. jamaicensis A male L.j. 1/2oturniculus ß female L.j. coturniculus I-1 B.H. male ß B.H. female 8 5.0 15.5 ß ; .... ; .... : .... : .... ; .... : 16.0 16.5 IZO 17.5 16.0 18.5 Total culmen length (mm.) Figure 1. Relation of culmen length to bill width in North American Black Rails. tent, a shorter tarsus than L. j. jamaicensis. The bill of the western race is definitely more slender and represents the most distinctive character of the race (fig. 1). Measurements of the two birds from British Honduras are also included in the table and figure. Measurements of wing and tarsus are intermediate between the two races. In figure 1 it may be noted that the bills of the two birds from British Honduras are shorter and stouter than the bills of the other specimens. I refer the British Honduran birds to L. j. jamaicenyis. Although they are separable from both L. j. jamalcensls and L. j. coturniculus on the basis of bill propor- tions, the two specimens constitute too small a sample to justify naming a new subspecies. On 20 March 1964, Walter P. Nickell of the Cranbrook Institute of Science captured a male Gray-breasted Crake (Laterallus exilis) in a mist net at Middlesex, British Honduras. He placed the bird in a plastic bag and kept it frozen in dry ice until he brought it to me upon his return from British Honduras in Aprilß The bird then weighed 27.6 gin. The testes measured 4 X 7.5 and 3 X 6 mm and the bird was probably in breeding conditionß Nickell had been netting birds at several localities near Middlesex, and he captured this bird in tall grass in a wet area near a cit- rus grove. A small permanent stream flowed through the area. On a number of occasions, he trapped and banded Laterallus ruber in a similar habitat about one quarter mile away. The speci- men of the Gray-breasted Crake represents the most northern locality of record for this monotypic species; previously it has not been found north of Honduras. Nickell did not hear calls attributable to this species. My work in British Honduras in the summer of 1963 was supported in part by the Louisiana State University Museum of Zoology and by a Sigma Xi--RESA Grant-in-aid of Research. Brit- ish Honduran specimens of Laterallus cited in this paper are deposited in the Louisiana State Uni- versity Museum of Zoology. For the loan of specimens, I wish to thank the curators of the bird TABLE 1 MEASURE3KENTS OF Laterallus ]amaicensis n MXLLrEXF.2S 107 Sample Wing Middle toe size chord Tail Tarsus with raw Males 70.0-78.0' 29.0-36.0 21.5-25.2 25.8-28.8 L. ]. }amaicensis 13 73.8 q- 2.19 33.1 q- 1.7 22.9 q- 1.0 27A q- 1.0 British Honduras bird 70.0 31.0 22.0 26.7 65.0-71.5 29.0-34.0 19.O--21.8 25.1-28.6 L. ]. coturniculus 18 67.6 q- 1.9 31.9 q- 1.4 20.7 q- 0.8 26.2 q- 1.0 Females 70.5-76.0 31.0-36.0 21.0-23.5 24.5-28.0 L. j. iamaicensis 8 73.4 q- 1.9 33.1 q- 1.6 22.4 q- 0.8 26.5 q- 1.0 British Honduras bird 71.0 35.0 21.0 27.6 63.5-69.0 28.0-34.0 19.0-21.0 23.4-27.3 L. ]. coturniculus 17 66.5 q- 1.5 30.6 q- 1.7 20.0 q- 0.6 25.2 q- 1.1 range. mean and standard deviation. collections at the American Museum of Natural History, Cornell University, University of Kansas, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, and the United States National Museum. Jason R. Swallen and Velva E. Rudd of the United States National Museum identified plant sped- mens for me.---SrEPam, M. RUSSELL, Department o! Zoology, University o! Arizona, Tucson, Ari- zona, 9 April 1963.