or salt-water marsh-hen (Rallus crepitans), is extremely abundant in the salt-water marshes of the Atlantic Coast. Each of these is about 15 inches long, and both are shot in great numbers for the table, while their eggs are also regarded as a delicacy. The mangrove-hen (Rallus longirostris) is a similar species of the West Indies; and a close ally (Rallus obsoletus) belongs to California. All these species are much alike in the compressed shape of the body, long bill, and large feet. The prevailing colors are olive, gray, fuscous, cinnamon-brown, black, and white; the sides and under parts are handsomely barred. The name ‘rail’ is often given to certain American coots, and is universally extended to those rail-like birds of the genus Porzana which inhabit drier lands, and in England are called crakes (q.v.). The most abundant and best known of these is the sora, or Carolina rail (Porzana Carolina), which is a favorite object of sport, with dogs, in the Southern States. Two other species, the yellow and the black rails, occur in Eastern North America. The latter is rare and remarkable for its diminutive size, dark color, and seclusive habits.
The rails form a highly generalized family, with a numerous fossil ancestry going back to the Eocene. They are distributed throughout the world, and many peculiar forms are or were inhabitants of the East Indian and South Sea islands. Many of these were restricted to one group or even to a single island, and had lost the use of their wings long before they became known to ornithologists; they were thus defenseless and several species have become extinct. Prominent examples are the genus Notornis of the New Zealand region, and the strange little wingless rail of Tristan d'Acunha. Consult: Evans, Birds (London, 1900); Newton, Dictionary of Birds (New York, 1896); and for the American species general works, especially Job, Among the Water Fowl (New York, 1902). See Flightless Birds; Extinct Animals; Weka; and Plate of Rails, etc.
RAILROADS. See Railways.
RAILROAD TELEGRAPHERS, Order of. See Railway Brotherhoods.
RAILROAD WORM. A popular name in New England for the apple-maggot, the larva of a trypetid fly (Trypeta pomonella), given because it spread along the lines of the railroads. It is a native of the Northern United States and Canada, extending south along the Appalachian Mountains. The larva is a footless maggot, which lives in the pulp of the apple and tunnels it with winding channels, making here and there discolored excavations about the size of a pea. When ready to transform, the maggot leaves the apple, falls to the ground, and beneath the surface enters the pupal state, in which condition it remains until the middle of the following summer, when the perfect fly escapes. The fly is shining black with a rust-red head and legs, and whitish wings with dusky bands. The eggs are inserted into the flesh of the apple and frequently fruit is attacked which has previously been perforated by the codling moth. Thin-skinned summer and fall apples are preferred by it to the winter varieties.
RAILWAY BEETLE. A curious beetle of the family Malacodermidæ and probably of the tribe Phengodini, the female of which is worm-like or larviform, and which is said to give out a strong red light from the two extremities and a green light from numerous points along the sides of the body, giving it the appearance of a miniature railway train. These beetles occur not infrequently in parts of South America, and the name originated apparently in Paraguay. In the United States very rare representatives of the genera Phengodes and Zarhipis have similar larviform luminous females. Compare Luminosity of Animals.
RAILWAY BROTHERHOODS. Organizations of railway employees for the protection of their interests and the advancement of their condition in so far as dependent on themselves. The first five organizations described below are commonly referred to in the trade-union world as ‘the great railroad brotherhoods;’ and they are clearly distinguished from the other trades-unions of the country by unusual conservatism, a highly perfected form of government, and the great emphasis which they place upon the character of their members. While the railway brotherhoods are on an exceptionally friendly footing with the railway managers and have secured written contracts with most of the railroads fixing wages and other conditions of employment, they regard themselves as preëminently protective associations, and each maintains a large protective or strike fund. They also differ from the ordinary American union in the importance which they attach to the feature of mutual insurance. Affiliated with each of the brotherhoods is a Ladies' Auxiliary Society, who together maintain, with assistance from the brotherhoods themselves, a joint home for aged and disabled railroad employees at Highland, Illinois.
The railway brotherhoods are very similar in organization and government. The supreme powers are vested in a biennial national convention. The most striking feature which these brotherhoods have in common, however, is their system of legislative and adjustment boards. (1) The legislative board constitutes the lobby of the railway laborers. Whenever a majority of the divisons of any State or Province so desire, their representatives assemble at the State or Provincial capital and effect a general organization, usually selecting one or two delegates—the chairman and secretary-treasurer—as a permanent legislative committee. A plan has now been devised by which the chairmen of the legislative boards of the several organizations may combine in a Railroad Brotherhoods' Legislative Board, and such boards now exist in several States. (2) The boards of adjustment, also known as protective boards, are charged with the investigation of grievances and the collective bargaining concerning wages and other conditions of employment. In general, each division or local union elects a local grievance committee or board of adjustment; and the chairmen of the local boards on each system of railways constitute a general board of adjustment for that system. Where two or more separate systems are controlled by a single syndicate, the Locomotive Engineers provide for a still higher board or executive committee of adjustment, covering all the roads included in the syndicate. The adjustment system makes it extremely difficult to declare a strike.
