278 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



almost beyond belief; but if you suppose a series of salt marshes 20 miles in 

 length and a mile in breadth, while at every 8 or 10 steps one or two birds may 

 be met with, you may calculate their probable number. 



Nesting. — Clapper rails were still common on the coast of Virginia 

 when I was there in 1907, though in nothing like their former abun- 

 dance. On Cobb and Wreck Islands, and on other large islands along 

 the coast, the outer shore line is protected by long, high beaches of 

 broken shells and sand and by great piles of oyster shells thrown up 

 by the surf; behind these barriers are extensive tracts of low, fiat, 

 salt marshes and meadows, intersected by numerous, winding tidal 

 creeks. At low tide broad mud flats are exposed to view in the 

 estuaries and along the creeks, where the rails find suitable feeding 

 grounds. At ordinary high tides the marshes and meadows are more 

 or less covered with water; and at spring tides they are flooded, so 

 that only a few of the highest spots are above water and only the 

 tops of the grasses are visible in the low places. 



During the few days that we spent in these marshes, from June 24 

 to 28, we found a large number of nests of the clapper rail, which 

 must have been second layings, for it was late in the season for them 

 and yet most of them were not heavily incubated. Perhaps the 

 spring tides had destroyed many of the first layings. Practically all 

 of the nests that we found were on the higher and drier portions 

 of the marshes, which are only partially covered at high tide with a 

 few inches of water. The nests were mostly built in the little clumps 

 of coarse, green, marsh grass, which was then about 18 or 24 inches 

 high, growing principally along the banks of the creeks in the soft, 

 wet mud. They varied in height, above the mud, from 8 to 12 

 inches and were evidently intended to be high enough to escape the 

 ordinary high tides; but they were not all high enough to avoid the 

 high course of spring tides. The nests were usually more or less 

 arched over, with pretty little canopies of green grass interlaced 

 above, through which the eggs could be plainly seen, making a very 

 pretty picture; these little canopies were often conspicuous at a long 

 distance, making it easy to locate the nests. But in many cases the 

 nests were entirely open and uncovered, in plain sight in the shorter 

 grass. The nests were well made of dry sedges and grasses, and were 

 lined with finer and shorter pieces of the same material ; they were 

 usually well cupped and measured from 7 to 10 inches in outside and 

 from 5 to 6 inches in inside diameter. Many of the nests had well- 

 defined runways leading to them and some were provided with 

 pathways or stairways, made of dry grasses, leading up to them. 

 One nest was concealed almost perfectly under a bunch of drift sea- 

 weed, which had lodged on top of a thick clump of coarse, green grass; 

 there was an entrance left open on one side which was the only 

 point from which the eggs were visible. Another nest was hidden 



