First records of the Spotted ( maculatus) for the United States, Chile, Bolivia and western Mexico

Breeding range extensionsfor this elusive ,plus documentation of wanderings as much as 1700 miles

Kenneth C. Parkes, Douglas P. Kibbe, and Edward L. Roth

have a fairly continuous range in suitable I• SPOTTEDa NeotropicalRAIL(Pardirallus species, roughlymaculatus) mid- throughout the slope of way in size between the familiar Virginia Middle America" -- the limitation of their (Railus limicola) and King (R. elegans)Rails prediction to the Caribbean slope was of . Although the senior probably superfluous,as we shall see. In author previously followed those authors South America, the known range is also dis- who merge Pardirallus into Railus (Dicker- junct. It was given by Meyer de Schauensee man and Parkes, 1969),Olson (1973)has pre- (1966) as: "SURINAM; FRENCH GUIANA; sented convincingevidence that the Spotted westward through VENEZUELA (Aragua, Rail and its South American relatives are not Carabobo, Portuguesa and M•rida) to the at all closely related to true , justifying Cauca Valley in COLOMBIA. Eastern resurrection of the Pardirallus. The BRAZIL from Pardi, Ceani, Pernambuco, argument of Ripley (1977: 27) that the many Alagoas and Bahia, spottily south to Rio anatomical differences between Railus and Grande do Sul; URUGUAY; PARAGUAY, Pardirallus are not of a generic nature but ARGENTINA south to Tucum,•in, C6rdoba, merely reflect "adaptations to open and Buenos Aires. Western PERU in Piura, life and more migratory habit as contrasted Lambayeque and Libertad. Trinidad and to tropical .jungle life and reduced, flapping Tobago." There is also an isolated popula- flight," respectively, is clearly irrelevant. tion in Cuba, and the speciesis said to have Pardirallus maculatus, in spiteof its anatomi- formerly occurredin Jamaica(Bond, 1974) cal "adaptations," sharesthe typical habitat The was first described by and flight ability of Rallus and is by no means Boddaert in 1783, based on a specimenfrom a of tropical jungles. Cayenne, French Guiana. Bangs and Peck Like many other membersof its family, the (1908) gave the subspecificname insolitusto Spotted Rail is usually shy and elusive. a single specimenfrom British Honduras, at Moreover, its preferred habitat is dense that time the only known specimen from freshwater marshes of cattails or other tall Middle America. Later, Bangs (1913) gave grasses, sedges,rice, etc., where it could the name inoptatusto the Cubanpopulation, escapeobservation for many years. Although having compared two Cuban specimensw•th there is an apparent hiatus in the known the still unique type of insolitusand one old range of the species in Central America (it South American specimen. Watson (1962) has not been recorded from Guatemala, Hon- assembled 13 specimensfrom Cuba, five of duras [contra Haverschmidt, 1968], El Salva- which he had collected himself. He found that dor, or Nicaragua), Birkenholz and Jenni the alleged characters of inoptatus were (1964) were almost certainly correct in their invalid, with the range of variation among prediction that this species "will prove to Cuban being the same as that among

Volume32, Number3 295 South American. Bond (1963) and Ripley County, Pennsylvania. In particular, he was (1977) followed Watson in synonymizing surveying a 500-foot natural draft cooling tnoptatus with rnaculatus. tower, searching a walkway around the LTHOUGHSOME AUTHORS haveconsidered tower about 60 feet above its base. On the the Middle American race insolitus as a east-southeast side of the tower, he found a "weakly characterized form" (Bond, 1963), large, dark rail that had obviouslystruck the it is, in fact, an excellent subspecies.The tower itself, and slid down to lodge between brown edgingsof the back and wings the inner walkway and the tower wall. He are darker and duller in insolitus, but these tentatively identified it as a juvenile King colors are subjectto wear and fading, and the Rail, an understandable error as this is the differences are not always obvious unless only large rail to be expected in western unworn birds are being compared. A much Pennsylvania, and donated the specimento better character, which is not eliminated by Carnegie Museum of Natural History wear, is the nature of the white markingsof Parkeswas away when the bird wasdelivered, the upperparts that give the species its but when he took it out of the freezer upon English name. The white spots of the lower his return he was astonished to find that it back and scapulars of the nominate race are was an adult Spotted Rail. Although Kibbe larger than those of insolitus, and are elon- surveyed the tower only once a week, the gated, those of the scapulars being streaks freshness of the thawed specimen made it rather than spots. Although other authors evident that it must have struck the tower seem to have missedthis point, there is also a during the night of November 11-12. It had difference in bill size. Culmen lengths of the clearly been following the fiver valley; specimens in the American and Carnegie althoughthe tower is 500 feet tall, the bluffs Museums of Natural History were as fol- on either side of the Ohio in this area rise to lows' rnadulatus,12 c•c• 43-48 mm (mean well above 1000feet. The Ohio and its major 45 5), 3 9 9 41.5-42.5 (41.8). insolitus, 3 c•c• tributaries wind around so much in this 46-52 (49.3); 2 9 9 41, 45. Measurements pre- general area that it is impossibleto know sented by Watson (1962) indicate that the what the bird's general flight path had been Cuban population, although like maculatus Accordingto Storrs Olson (pers.comm. to m color, is nearer insolitusin bill length:5 c•c• Parkes), there are no more than about three 47.5-50.5 (49.4); 6 9 9 43-48.5 (45.8). Larger skeletons of Pardirallus maculatus in exist- series would undoubtedlyadd to the overlap ence in museums.Parkes therefore prepared of measurements,but insolitusseems definitely the Pennsylvaniaspecimen as a study skin, to have larger bills than maculatus;bills of the but also prepared a complete skeleton latter are more slender as well as shorter. lacking only the bill and the wing and leg Th•s species is unusual not only among bones of the right side. The bird was an adult rails but among birds in general in that them male, moderately fat. It was not weighed are three color phasesin the juvenal AlthoughRipley (1977) mentionsonly (Dickerman and Haverschmidt, 1971). No food for this species, the stomach of the corresponding color phases have been des- Pennsylvania bird contained only seeds of cnbed among adults, but the number of Potamogeton epihydrus, a common and molting specimensavailable is not enough to widely distributed pondweed well known as a determine whether the "individual varia- food of our native rails. tion" described by Watson and others may, HEQUESTION NATURALLY ARISES asto the m fact, be correlated with the juvenal possibility of this bird having escaped plumage color phases. from captivity. There was no physicalindica- tion that the bird had been a captive -- the NthenNOVEMBER working12, for1976, anKibbe, environmental whowas bill and feet were perfectly normal both in impact firm in Pittsburgh, made his regular structure and color when the bird was weekly survey for avian migrant mortality at thawed out. Relatively few speciesof Rallidae a nuclear power plant on the south bank of are imported alive into the United States, the Ohio at Beaver Valley, Beaver and this species is not listed in any of the

296 AmericanBirds, May 1978 bility of hurricane transport. This cannot be the explanation for the presenceof a Spotted Rail in Pennsylvania in November 1976, however. It happens that 1976 was an unusual year: "An anomalousfeature of this [1976] season is the complete absence of storms in both the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico" (Lawrence, 1977). Eliminating importation by man and trans- portation by windstorm, we are left with no real clues as to how this Spotted Rail got to Pennsylvania. However, members of the family Rallidae are notorious for wandering far out of their normal ranges,in spite of their deceptively weak-looking flight. An out- standing example is the familiar Purple Gal- Figure 1. Spotted Rail, posterior view, showing iinule (Porphyrula martinica), which has extended wing from above. wandered as far as the subantarctic island of South Georgia as well as to the Falkland Islands, Tristan da Cunha Island, Ascension Island, St. Helena Island, and South Africa (Ripley, 1977). Almost all of the Pacific islands are inhabited by rails, which had to have reached these islands by long trans- oceanic flights (possibly combined with raft- ing). Prior to the preparation of this paper, there was nothingin the literature to suggest that Pardira!!us maculatus might be subject to similar wanderings. Two unpublished specimens in the American Museum of Natural History demonstrate that such wandering has, in fact, taken place in previ- ous years. On September 19, 1906, J. T. Figure 2. Spotted Rail, anterior view, showing Nichols picked up a Spotted Rail of the underside of extended left wing. Photos/Kenneth nominate race (now AMNH 90380) aboard C. Parkes. ship at 2 IøS, 37øW, which is about 200 miles recent publications of the U.S. Fish and southeast of the nearest point of land on Wildlife Service that include all live birds the Brazilian coast. Even more dramatic known to have been imported here. Avicui- was another specimen of P.m. maculatus turalists consulted by Parkes have never (AMNH 445164) killed by a on Juan Fer- heard of its being kept in this country. The nandez Island, Chile, and preserved by a only clue to the bird's ultimateorigin lies in native who gave it to Rollo Beck about the geographicvariation in the species.The November I, 1913.This specimen,a mummy nearest known breeding localities to Pennsyl- lacking many but clearly identifi- vania are Cuba and the coastal lowlands of able, constitutes the first record of the Veracruz, Mexico. The specimen clearly species on Chilean soil, but the Juan Fer- belongs to the Middle American race nandez Islands are far from mainland Chile. insolitus, thus eliminating Cuba or South They lie between 400 and 500 miles off the America as possible sources. coast, and are approximately 1700 miles When a Neotropical bird has been found in south of the nearest known range of the the northeastern United States, especially in SpottedRail in Peru, or 700 to 800 mileswest the fall, one thinks immediately of the possi- and acrossthe from its range in Argen-

Volume 32, Number 3 297 tlna. The distance between the Juan Fer- edgeof the Chaco as definedby Short(1975). nandez Islands and western Peru is, by The most recent summaryof the distribu- a strange coincidence, the same as the tion of Pardirallus maculatus(Ripley, 1977) distance between Beaver Valley, Pennsyl- lists it as having been taken in only three vania and the Veracruz coast, about 1700 states of Mexico: Puebla. Veracruz and airline miles. Chiapas.Ripley overlooked the parenthetical statement of Dickerman and Hayerschmidt USTAS PARKES WASPREPARING tOgive a (1971)that two of theirjuvenile specimens of paper on the Pennsylvaniarecord at the P.rn. insolituswere from Oaxaca. They were 1977meeting of the American Ornithologists' collected 3 km north of Putla by Juan Nava Union in Berkeley, word came of a second S. and Santos Farf•in B., on October 24 and United States record for Pardirallus December 19, 1965. The former specimenis maculatus.This bird was pickedup alive on. now in the collectionof CarnegieMuseum of August 9, 1977 near a marshy area along a Natural History, the latter in that of Cornell small creek on the south side of Brownwood, University.The Putlalocality is in the Pacific Brown County,in centralTexas. This locality drainage of Mexico, and these specimens Is just under 800 airline miles north of Teco- constitute the first records for the western lutla, Veracruz, the northernmost known portion of that country. The species is localityfor SpottedRails in Mexico.The bird undoubtedly more widespreadin Pacific was weak and died the next day. While in Mexico, however. Two specimensin the captivity it took water, but no attemptwas Delaware Museum of Natural History (nos. made to feed it. The specimenwas prepared 27551 and 27552), formerly in the collec- by Roth, who found it to be a male. Its tion of Allan R. Phillips, were collectedby stomachwas empty. No injury was apparent, S6stenes Romero H. at E1 Arenal, east shore and the bird did not seem emaciated, but it of Laguna de Tres Palos, east of Acapulco, weighed only 135 grams, whereas a male Guerrero, on April 18, 1971 and May 13, from Tecolutla weighed211 grams(Dicker- 1970, respectively. Both were adult males man and Warner, 1961); two Cuban males with testes not enlarged;the May specimen weighed 195 and 198 grams, and males from was in heavy molt and was noted by the Surinam weighed 148-167 grams (Haver- collector as having been fat. schmidt, 1968). The specimen has been In addition, we have received excellent depositedin the Texas CooperativeWildlife notes on a sight record by Theodore A. Collection at Texas A&M University, Chandik of Palo Alto, , who, with a where Keith A. Arnold has determined it to group of about ten birders, watched a be, as expected,referable to P.rn. insolitus Spotted Rail for about twenty minutes on of Middle America. May 1, 1976, at a pool describedby Chandlk During the preparation of this paper, as "in the state of Nayarit, Mexico, on the Parkes uncovered several other records of east side of Highway 15 betweenkilometer Pardirallus rnaculatusthat representexten- posts 84 and 86, about 46 km southof where sions of the normal range of the species Highway 15 crosses Rio Acaponeta or about rather than spectacularwanderings. It has 51 km north of the junction of Highway 15 not been reported previouslyfrom Bolivia, and Highway 54 (the roadto SanBlas)." This althoughShort (1975)predicted that it might locality, near the extensive marshes of ultimately prove to occur in the Bolivian Laguna Agua Brava, is the northernmost Chaco. In point of fact, a Bolivian specimen Pacific record for the SpottedRail thus far, has existed for many years in the collection but suitablehabitat for the speciesexists well of Carnegie Museum of Natural History, but to the north, and there is no doubt that the the record has not been previouslypub- full extent of the range of the speciesin hshed. It is a female just completingits first western Mexico has yet to be determined. prebasic molt, taken on May 15, 1928by Jos4 Steinbachat Buenavista(alt. 450 m), Dept. Santa Cruz, Bolivia, at the extreme northern SrangeIT IS NOW of PardirallusCLEAR both maculatusthat the is normal more

298 American Birds, May 1978 extensive than had been thought, and that the identifying it subspecifically;to Rollin Bauer specieshas the propensityfor long distance of Cornell University for sendingthe data on wandering so well known in its family, the Oaxaca specimen in that collection; to birders should be alert to watch for it and the authorities of the American Museum of should know what to look for. The photo- Natural History for permission to utilize graphs accompanyingthis article show the their collections; and to Christopher C dorsal, ventral and lateral aspects of the Fichtel for identifying the stomachcontents freshly-thawedPennsylvania specimen. The of the Pennsylvaniaspecimen. speciesis figuredin a numberof recentfield guides, generally rather poorly. The oldest Literature Cited illustration among these, and, interestingly BANGS. O. 1913. New birds from Cuba and the enough, still the most lifelike, is the line Isle of Pines. Proc. New England Zool Club drawingby Earl Poolein the variouseditions 4:89-92. of James Bond's West Indian field guide BANGS, O., and M. E. PECK. 1908. On some rare (most recently in Bond, 1974).Most dramatic and new birds from British Honduras. Proc Biol. Soc. Washington21:43-46. is the full page color plate by Robert Verity BIRKENHOLZ, D. E., and D. A. JENNI. 1964 Clem that accompanied the article by Observations on the Spotted Rail and Pinnated Watson (1962). This plate givesa good idea Bittern in Costa Rica. Auk 81:558-559. of the "soft part" colors-- red iris, yellow- BOND. J. 1963. Eighth supplementto the Check- list of birdsof the West Indies(1956). Academy green bill with a red spot at the base of the of Natural Sciences,Philadelphia. lower mandible, and dull red legs. Unfortu- BOND, J. 1974. Birds of the West Indies 4th nately the bird is portrayedwith an overlarge edition. Collins, London. head and a short, thick neck (comparethe DICKERMAN, R. W., and F. HAVERSCHMIDT proportions with the photographsin the 1971. Further notes on the juvenal plumage of the Spotted Rail. Wilson Bull. 83:444-446 present paper). Dr. Watson (pers. comm. to DICKERMAN, R. W., and K. C. PARKES. 1969 Parkes) explained that the artist, who had Juvenal plumage of the Spotted Rail (Rallus never seenthe speciesalive or freshlydead, rnaculatus). Wilson Bull. 81:207-209. was misled by the grosslyoverstuffed study DICKERMAN, R. W., and D. W. WARNER. 1961 Distribution records from Tecolutla, Veracruz, skin that had been provided to him as a with the first record of Porzanafiaviventer from model. The proportionsof the SpottedRail Mexico. Wilson Bull. 73:336-340. shown in Peterson and Chalif (1973: pl. 10) HAVERSCHMIDT, F. 1968. Birds of Sunnam are better, although the body is still a bit Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh and London LAWRENCE, M. B. 1977. Atlantic humcane overplump; in addition, the linear white season of 1976. Weatherwise 30:10-17. markings shown on the back indicatethat MEYER DE SCHAUENSEE, R. 1966.The species Petersonpainted this plate usinga specimen of birds of South America and their distribu- of the South American nominate race as a tion. Livingston, Narberth, Pa. model. PETERSON, R. T., and E. L. CHALIF. 1973 A field guide to Mexican birds. HoughtonMifflin, Boston. Acknowledgements OLSON, S. L. 1973. A classificationof the Ralhdae Wilson Bull. 85:381-416. The secondand third authorsprovided the RIPLEY. S. D. 1977. Rails of the world. David R details of capture of the Pennsylvaniaand Godine, Boston. SHORT, L. L. 1975. A zoogeographicanalysis of Texas specimens,respectively; the senior the South American Chaco avifauna. Bull author compiled the remaining data and Arner. Mus. Nat. Hist. 154:163-352. wrote the manuscript. We are indebted to WATSON, G. E. 1962. Notes on the Spotted Rail Theodore Chandik for the data on his Nayarit in Cuba. Wilson Bull. 74:349-356. sight record; to Dr. Allan R. Phillipsand to the Delaware Museum of Natural History ----Carnegie Museum of Natural History, (throughDr. David Niles) for permissionto Pittsburgh, Pa. 15213 (Parkes), 1550 Yose- publishthe data on the Guerrerospecimens; mite St., Denver, Col. 80220 (Kibbe), Btology to Dr. Keith A. Dixon for alerting the senior Department, Howard Payne College, Brown- author about the Texas specimen and for wood. Tex. 76801 (Roth).

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