Plate CCIV. Male and Female.
Upper part of head and hind neck olivaceous brown; a brownish-orange
line from the bill to the eye; lower eyelid white; loral space,
cheeks, and part of the sides of the neck bluish-grey; upper parts of
the body streaked with greenish-olive and light grey, the two sides of
each feather being of the latter colour; wing-coverts dull olive,
tinged with grey, some of them with slight irregular whitish markings;
primaries olive-brown, secondaries and tail-feathers like the back;
upper part of throat yellowish-white, edged on either side with pale
yellowish-brown; sides and fore part of neck bluish-grey, tinged with
pale yellowish-brown; the fore part of the breast of the latter
colour; lower wing-coverts, sides, hind part of abdomen, and middle
lower tail-coverts undulated with deep greyish-brown and
greyish-white; lateral tail-coverts with the outer webs white; tibial
feathers similarly barred, but paler; middle of abdomen greyish-white;
iris pale yellow. Female with the tints duller.
_Male_, 15, 20-3/4. _Female_, 14, 19-1/4.
Exceedingly abundant from Texas to New Jersey, breeding in all
salt-water marshes. Few proceed eastward beyond Long Island.
Constantly resident from the Carolinas southward. Not inland.
Clapper Rail, Rallus crepitans, Wils. Amer. Orn. v. vii. p.
112; but not the figure, which is that of R. elegans.
Clapper Rail, Nutt. Man. v. ii. p. 201.
Clapper Rail or Salt-water Marsh-Hen, Rallus crepitans, Aud.
Orn. Biog. v. iii. p. 33; v. v. p. 570.