THE CALIFORNIA CLAPPER RAIL. 605 



No. 239. 



CALIFORNIA CLAPPER RAIL. 



A. O. U. No. 210. Rallus obsoletus Ridgw. 



Description. — Adult: Above olive-gray or graj-ish olive, broadly, but 

 usually not sharply, striped with blackish brown ; eyelids, short superciliary line, 

 chin, and upper throat, whitish; fore-neck, chest, and breast, uniform deep cinna- 

 mon, the sides of the neck dull grayish ciiuiamon ; sides, flanks, and axillars, dark 

 brown, narrowly bordered with white, the white, in turn, with dusky. Downy 

 young: Uniform glossy black. Length of adult: 17.50-18.00 1444.5-437.2); 

 "wing 6.63 (168.4) ; bill 2.40 (61) ; tarsus 2.18 (55.4». 



Recognition Marks. — Small Crow size ; olive-gray above, reddish below ; 

 the only large Rail in range. 



Nesting. — Nest: a raised platform of dried grasses or tules, supported by 

 grass tussock in swamp. Eggs: 6-15, huffy white, or paler brownish buff, spar- 

 ingly dotted and spotted with reddish brown and purplish gray. Av. size, 1.75 x 

 1.24 I 44.5 .\ 31.5 ). Season: May; one brood. 



General Range. — "Salt marshes of the Pacific Coast, from Washington ( ?) 

 to Lower California." 



Range in Washington. — Gray's Harbor. Also lay reports from vicinity of 

 Tacoma and Seattle. 



Authority. — Hubbard, Zoe, \'ol. IH., July 1892, p. 142. 



WE are not certain whether this large marsh-prowler is a resident with 

 us or whether our meager records are due only to the visits of ambitious ex- 

 plorers, the vanguard of that mighty army of those who, like ourselves, feel 

 the lure of the North. This species has its center of abundance in tlie salt 

 marshes which adjoin San Francisco Bay. "They are either tame or exceed- 

 inglv stupid birds — I believe the latter, for they may be captured alive during 

 the earlv spring and late fall, as they trust to protective coloring and do not 

 trv to escape until too late. During the breeding season they are somewhat 

 more sin*, but even then it is nearly impossible to flush them because they skulk 

 or dive rather than flv, and refuse to desert the nest. About the middle of April 

 thev commence to make a nest of marsh grass on a tussock, and from that time 

 on are devoted to it. Eight or nine eggs are laid, and incubation lasts nineteen 

 to twentv-three days. As is well known, certain varieties of marsh birds build 

 several nests, using but one. The 'dummy' sometimes serves as a shelter for the 

 adult male ; sometimes the making of it seems to have been a mere pastime ; 

 and, occasionally, as in the case of the clapper rail, it forms a convenient plat- 

 form or nurserv on wdiich the young can scramble for a sun-bath when weary 

 with their first swimming-lessons. These unused nests are commonly placed 

 close to the one occupied bythe brood and closely resemble it" ( Mrs. Wheelock )*. 



a. Birds of California, by Irene Grosvenor Wheelock; pp. xxviii -|- 57S; Chicago, A. C. McClurg & 

 Co., 1904. 



