NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 269 



(lots, of di'ab and brown, such as palo shades of ''purple drab," "ecrii 

 drab," or "drab-gray," darker shades of the same colors, and various 

 shades of dark browns, such as "chocolate" and "Vandyke brown." 

 The measurements of 57 eggs average 44.1 by 31.3 millimeters; the 

 eggs showing the four extremes measure 47.9 by 32.6, 46.9 by 33.4, 

 41.2 by 31, 43.2 by 29.6 millimeters. 



Young. — Ernest Adams (1900) says: "I have often seen two 

 birds about a nest and I am certain that the male assists in incubation." 



W. Otto Emerson (1885) has published the following interesting 

 note regarding the young: 



One nest of seven glossy jet black chicks was found, seemingly just out of the 

 shell, one not quite dr}'. All but this one would hold their long necks out, moving 

 them from side to side, and calling in a low plaintive tone "pc-ec-ep, pe-ee-ep," 

 very much like a weak young chicken. Putting these Httle fellows in my basket 

 for further study at home, no more attention was paid to them until I got to my 

 buggy, when I found two of them missing, knowing no doubt, the fate awaiting 

 them. On skinning one I noticed a small claw sticking out from the second joint 

 of each wing, not more than a sixteenth part of an inch long, claw part turning 

 down, of a light horn color and comparing only to a little kitten's claw; it was 

 found on all the chicks. 



Plumages. — There are not enough specimens of the California clap- 

 per rail, in immature plumages, in eastern collections, to work out the 

 sequence of plumages to maturity; but what material I have seen 

 gives no reason to think that the molts and plumages are essentially 

 different from those of the king rails and clapper rails, all of wiiich 

 are closely related. The downy young is black with a slight greenish 

 gloss on the upper parts. Grinuell, Bryant, and Storer (1918) describe 

 the Juvenal plumage as "similar to that of the adult, but with streak- 

 ing on back duller, less strikingly contrasted, lower surface very 

 much lighter, more buffy in tone, and barring on sides and flanks 

 scarcely or not at all in evidence. " 



Food. — According to Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer (1918), the food 

 of the California clapper rail — 



is made up almost entirely of animal matter — worms, crustaceans, and the like, 

 as afforded on the salt marshes. In the gullet of a bird shot on a salt marsh, 

 near an artesian well, W. E. Bryant (1893) found a good sized frog. Several 

 stomachs from birds taken at Bay Farm Island, Alameda County, were found 

 by us to contain only parts of XJrabs {Ilemigrapsus oregonensis). 



Donald A. Cohen (1895) says: 



Their chief food is crustaceans, and the craws of those I shot were mostly 

 empty. One contained l)its of leaf of a plant common to the salt marsh and one 

 bird had swallowed a mud crab the size of a quarter of a dollar and had discarded 

 the legs and pincers, probably to prevent the crab causing trouble after being 

 swallowed. 



Behavior. — Referring to the behavior of the California clapper rail, 

 Grinnell, Br3'ant, and Storer (1918) write: 



