NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 267 



by small tidal creeks. It is evidently rare here, for Mr. Frazar shot only two 

 specimens, and saw or heard less than half a dozen in all. R. beldingi is proba- 

 bly resident wherever found, but as yet even this can not be positively asser- 

 ted. 



Col. John E. Thayer (1909) quotes from some notes sent to him 

 by Wilmot W.Brown, jr., who has probably collected more of these 

 rails than any one else, as follows : 



As for the Belding rail, I found this species a most difficult one to collect on 

 account of its retiring habits in the dense mangrove jungle, where the branches 

 and long roots are interwoven and interlaced. You can not enter a foot without 

 cutting with axe and machete. In my search for the nest and eggs of this rail 

 I cut trails through various parts of the mangrove tangle, but was unable to find 

 but an abandoned nest with two eggs which the mice had nearly destroyed. 

 The collecting of this rail is a question of high tides. At low tide this rail can 

 not be hunted. He keeps in the depths of the mangrove tangle where he feeds 

 on small crabs, etc.; but when there is a very high tide the water forces him to 

 seek his food more inland, along the shore outside of the swamp; then by care- 

 ful and patient hunting you can occasionally shoot one, but it is very slow work 

 and requires much time and patience. In fact, for a long time I thought I should 

 be unsuccessful in my search; for although I hunted faithfully for it over a 

 month I was unable to find one until I thought of the high tide plan. 



Eggs. — Mr. Brown found two eggs of this rail, badly eaten by mice, 

 in a deserted nest on San Jose Island on June 28, 1908; the eggs are 

 now in Colonel Thayer's collection. In comparing these eggs with 

 several sets of Rallus levipes, Colonel Thayer wrote me that he "could 

 see little or no difference." He describes the eggs as "oval, creamy 

 white, and dotted and spotted sparingly with 'Hay's maroon, and 

 'pale mauve' markings." They measure 44.6 by 30 and 44 by 2& 

 millimeters. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Cape region of Lower California. The Belding rail is a 

 resident species, occupying both coasts of the southern part of Lower 

 California, its range extending north (on the west coast) to Santa 

 Margarita Island and (on the east coast) to San Jose Island. 



Egg date. — Southern Lower California: 1 record, June 28. 



RALLtS OBSOLETUS Ridgway 

 CALIFORNIA CLAPPER RAIL 



HABITS 



As its name implies this bird is a product of the Golden State and 

 it never wanders far from the general vicinity of the Golden Gate. 

 Messrs. Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer (1918) say: 



No other game bird in California has so limited a distribution as has the Cali- 

 fornia clapper rail. The salt marshes bordering the southern arm of San Fran- 

 cisco Bay and a few smaller nearby areas of the same character alone seem to 



