The Literature of the California Black Rail

Few birds have remained so little known as the California black rail. Although the first specimens were collected on or before 1859 and reported in 1874, its life history, distribution, and status have remained obscure enough that even a sight record of the bird is deemed worthy of report in some ornithological publications. The 84 papers and notes both summarized in this report and included in its bibliography included essentially all that is currently known about the California black rail. Only 11 of these papers consider the life history of this rail in any detail. The rest are distribution notes and some of the more important papers on the closely related eastern black rail. The latter are included for comparative purposes, or because they may lend clues to currently unknown facets of the life history of the western race.