(_Rallus longirostris crepitans._)
This bird, sometimes called the salt-water marsh hen, is found in
great abundance in the salt marshes of the Atlantic coast from New
Jersey southward. It breeds in profusion in the marshes from the
Carolinas to Florida, and has lately been found breeding on the coast
of Louisiana on the Gulf of Mexico, Dr. A. K. Fisher having taken an
old bird and two young at Grand Isle in 1886. The clapper rail arrives
on the south-eastern coast of New Jersey about the last of April,
its presence being made known by harsh cries at early dawn and at
sunset. Nest-building is commenced in the latter part of May, and by
the first of June the full complement of eggs is laid, ranging, says
Davie, from six to nine or ten in number, thirteen being the probable
limit. Farther south the bird is known to lay as many as fifteen. On
Cobb's Island, Virginia, the clapper breeds in great numbers, carefully
concealing the nest in high grass. The color of the eggs is pale
buffy-yellow, dotted and spotted with reddish-brown and pale lilac,
with an average size of 1.72 × 1.20, but there is a great variation in
this respect in a large series.
At the nesting-season the rails are the noisiest of birds; their long,
rolling cry is taken up and repeated by each member of the community.
The thin bodies of the birds often measure no more than an inch and
a quarter through the breast. "As thin as a rail" is a well-founded
illustrative expression.
"To get a good look at these birds in their grassy retreats," says
Neltje Blanchan, "is no easy matter. Row a scow over the submerged
grass at high-tide as far as it will go, listen to the skulking
clatterers, and, if near by, plunge from the bow into the muddy meadow,
and you may have the good fortune to flush a bird or two that rises
fluttering just above the sedges, flies a few yards, trailing its legs
behind it, and drops into the grasses again before you can press the
button of your camera. A rarer sight still is to see a clapper rail
running, with head tilted downward and tail upward, in a ludicrous
gait, threading in and out of the grassy maze."
The rail can swim fairly well, but not fast. Its wings are short, but
useful, and it is so swift-footed that dogs chase it in vain.
[Illustration: CLAPPER RAIL.
2/5 Life-size.
FROM COL. F. NUSSBAUMER & SON
A. W. MUMFORD, PUBLISHER, CHICAGO.
COPYRIGHT 1900, BY
NATURE STUDY PUB. CO., CHICAGO.]