CLAPPER RAIL. 



CLAPPER RAIL. 



201 



(Rallus crepitans, G31EL. Boxap. Syn. No. 270. Wilsox, vii. p. 

 112. pi. G2. fig. 2. [adult.] Pexx. Arct. Zool. No. 407. Pliil. 

 Museum, No. 4400.) 



Sp. Charact. — Black, skirted with olive-brown, beneath rufous; 

 throat white ; wing coverts chestnut ; first primary edged ex- 

 ternally with pale rusty. Length 14 inches. — Young, greenish- 

 ash, beneath whitish. 



The Clapper Rail is a numerous and well known species 

 in all the Middle and Southern States, but is unknown in 

 this part of New England, or in any direction further to 

 the north, being unnoticed by Richardson in his Northern 

 Zoology. According to Wilson, it arrives on the coast of 

 New Jersey about the 20th of April, and probably winters 

 within the southern boundaries of the Union, or in the 

 marshes along the extensive coast of the Mexican Gulf, as 

 they are seen by February on the shores of Georgia, in great 

 numbers. In the course of their migrations, in the hours 

 of twilight, they are often heard on their way, in the spring, 

 by fishermen and coasters. Their general residence is in 

 salt marshes, occasionally penetrating a short distance up 

 the large rivers, as far as the bounds of tide water. In the 

 vast flat and grassy marshes of New Jersey, intersected by 

 innumerable tide-water ditches, their favorite breeding re- 

 sorts, they are far more numerous than all the other marsh 

 fowl collectively. 



The arrival of the Mud Hen (another of their common ap- 

 pellations,) is soon announced through all the marshes, 

 by its loud, harsh and incessant cackle, heard principally in 

 the night, and is most frequent at the approach of a storm. 

 About the middle of May they commence laying, dropping 

 the first egg into a slight cavity scratched for its reception, 



