NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 287 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — The Louisiana clapper rail is confined to the salt marshes 

 of the Gulf coast extending east to Alabama (Perdido Bay) and prob- 

 ably western Florida (Pensacola); and west through Mississippi (Bil- 

 oxi); Louisiana (New Orleans, Grand Island, and Vermilion Bay); 

 and Texas (Galveston, Port Lavaca, Corpus Christi, and Browns- 

 ville). So far as is known it is nonmigratory. 



Egg dates. — Mississippi to Texas: 15 records, April 13 to June 28; 

 8 records, April 30 to June 8. 



RALLUS LONGIROSTRIS SCOTTI Sennett 



FLORIDA CLAPPER RAIL 



HABITS 



This is the dark colored race of the clapper rail which is found on 

 the Gulf coast of Florida, from Charlotte Harbor to the mouth of the 

 Suwanee River and perhaps beyond both points, where it seems to be 

 confined to the salt-water marshes, particularly about the mouths of 

 rivers. At the mouth of the Suwanee River, Messrs. Brewster and 

 Chapman (1891) found these rails to be "the most common and charac- 

 teristic birds"; they say of their haunts: 



The marshes and small islands at the mouth of the river were covered with a 

 tall grass, each blade of which ended in a very sharp point or spine. Beneath 

 the upright grass there was a mat of dead grass representing probably the growth 

 of previous years. This formed a dense mass — a foot or more in thickness — 

 and raised 15 or 20 inches above the ground. Beneath this mat the rails had 

 their runways from which it was almost impossible to dislodge them. At inter- 

 vals of 15 or 20 minutes one would call out when another would answer, and then 

 still another, until the call was taken up by dozens of birds in succession. We 

 did not observe that these outcries were at all stimulated or excited by any sud- 

 den noise, such as the report of a gun, as in the case with the Carolina rail. After 

 a vain attempt to flush these birds by wading in the marshes, we were obliged 

 to resort to firing the islands in order to obtain specimens. 



Dr. Louis B. Bishop (1904) describes a similar haunt, as follows: 



At the mouth of the Anclote River stretches a wide marsh overgrown with a 

 cylindrical, sharp-pointed rush, stiff and sharp enough to bring blood after pass- 

 ing through several thicknesses of cloth. As these rushes die and bend over 

 new ones take their place, resulting in a breast-high tangle through which it is 

 difficult to force one's way, and even dangerous on account of one inhabitant 

 of this marsh with which I became acquainted. Channels of varying width 

 intersect the reeds, becoming at low water small stretches of sand flat. This is 

 the home of Scott's rail, and he cHngs closely to it, not flying unless driven to 

 cross some narrow opening, and then burying himself rapidly in the tangle beyond. 

 Even these open spaces he prefers, under ordinary circumstances, to cross by 

 running. 



Courtship.— W. E. D. Scott (1889) says: 



They begin to mate in February, and the breeding season is at its height by 

 the 1st of April. During the mating season the male birds are very pugnacious 



