284 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and herons. Farther inland from the coast, throughout this strip of coast prai- 

 rie, are numbers of shallow ponds overgrown with reeds and sedge, and spots 

 where tall grass and reeds grow over several inches of water. 



My favorite spot for the Louisana clapper rail is a small red-wing blackbird 

 colony about 6 miles south of the courthouse in Houston, being a mere damp 

 spot on the prairie covering about two acres, and overgrown with tall grass and 

 sedge. Two small clumps of persimmon trees grow in this marsh, one at either 

 end. Though fully 22 miles from Galveston Bay and 50 miles from the Gulf 

 of Mexico, this salt marsh might be termed a typical salt marsh, for here nested 

 a pair of Texas seaside sparrows, and not a mile off to the south a nest of the 

 mottled duck with 11 eggs was found in another such marsh. 



Nesting. — Mr. Simmons (1914) gives more or less detailed accounts 

 of a number of nests of the Louisiana clapper rail, found by him and 

 by E. F. Pope, from which it appears that its nesting habits do not 

 differ materially from those of its eastern relatives, except that the 

 nests seem to be more widely scattered. His notes on one nest are 

 well worth quoting, as foUows: 



On my way home I stopped at the red-wing colony again to try to get a look 

 at the rail on the nest. Slowly T drew nearer and nearer to the nest, but I could 

 not tell whether there was a bird on it or not, so still did she sit and so perfectly 

 did she blend into the background that I was unable to see her until I was within 

 about three feet of the nest. 



Sitting on one heel while using the opposite knee as an improvised table, I 

 checked down a few descriptive notes and sketches in my note book, although I 

 feared she would leave the nest while I was doing so. However, she did not, but 

 remained on the nest eyeing me askant, her slightly curved bill nearly sidewise 

 to me. Dropping my note book and other paraphernalia, I arose until I was 

 half over the bird on the nest; I could easily have caught her and might have 

 stroked her as she sat on the nest, had I not been so slow. But as I remained 

 in that position for several minutes without moving, she began to get nervous, 

 and while I stood there watching her she stepped off the nest into a well-defined 

 little runway or path leading away from it. So slowly did she go and such time 

 did she take to lift her feet at each step that I could have counted a second or 

 two between each stride. About 12 feet away she stopped and half turned to 

 watch me as I examined the nest and eggs. 



The nest was 8J^ inches across the top from rim to rim; the cavity was 2*4 

 inches deep, being a gradual slope from rim to rim, with the reeds firmly and 

 smoothly packed inside. For the most part the nest was composed of reeds and 

 fragments of reeds or marsh grass from 1 inch to over a foot in length; a few 

 were somewhat longer, being the standard blades of grass which had been bent 

 flat against the ground and folded back again. The lining was of small frag- 

 ments of the same buffy, broad-bladed marsh grass, and packed flat against the 

 body of the nest. 



Eggs. — The eggs of the Louisiana clapper rail are not distinguish- 

 able from those of the other subspecies. The measurements of 40 

 eggs average 42 b}^ 29.3 millimeters; the eggs showing the four ex- 

 tremes measure 46 by 30, 41.2 by 31.6, 39.5 by 28.5, and 40 by 28.4 

 millimeters. 



Food. — Mr. Simmons (1914) says that the food of these rails "con- 

 sists of small crabs, slugs, snails, aquatic insects, grasshoppers, and 



