CLAPPER PvAIL. 203 



of the sea, and great numbers of the Rails perish ; at least, 

 the females, now sitting, are so devoted to their eggs, as to 

 remain on the nest and drown, rather than desert it. At 

 such times, the males, escaping from the deluge, and such 

 of their mates as have not yet begun to sit, are seen by- 

 hundreds, walking about, exposed and bewildered, while 

 the shores, for a great extent, are strewed with the dead 

 bodies of the luckless females. The survivors, however, 

 wasting no time in fruitless regret, soon commence to nest 

 anew, and sometimes, when their nurseries have been a 

 second time destroyed by the sea, in a short time after, so 

 strong is the instinct and vigor of the species, that the nests 

 seem as numerous in the marshes, as though nothing de- 

 structive had ever happened. 



The young of the Clapper Rail are clad, at first, in the 

 same black down as those of the Virginian species, and are 

 only distinguishable by their superior size, by having a spot 

 of white on their auriculars, and a line of the same color 

 along the side of the breast, belly, and fore part of the thigh. 

 They run very nimbly through the grass and reeds, so as to 

 be taken with considerable difficulty, and are thus, at this 

 early period, like their parents, without the aid of their 

 wings, capable of eluding almost every natural enemy they 

 may encounter. Indeed, the principal defence of the spe- 

 cies seems to be in the vigor of their limbs, and the com- 

 pressed form of their bodies, which enables them to pass 

 through the grass and herbage with the utmost rapidity and 

 silence. They have also their covered paths throughout the 

 marshes, hidden by the matted grass, and through which 

 they run like rats without ever being seen ; when close 

 pressed, they can even escape the scent of a dog, by diving 

 over ponds or inlets, rising, and then again vanishing with 

 the silence and celerity of something supernatural. In still 

 pools it swims pretty well, but not fast, sitting high on the 



