288 BULLETIN 136, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



and resent any intrusions from others of the species. At such times I have seen 

 them have pitched battles, and finally, one giving in and taking to flight, the 

 victor would pursue the vanquished on the wing for several hundred feet and 

 then return to the neighborhood of the particular tuft of grass that sheltered the 

 nest. At such times, on alighting, the peculiar rattUng notes so characteristic of 

 the bird are indulged in with more than ordinary vigor. 



C. J. Pennock has sent me the following notes on the courtship 

 of this rail: 



Regarding the mating of Scott's rail, I have found these birds at St. Marks and 

 also about Punta Gorda quite silent throughout the winter season. Only when 

 considerably alarmed, at that period will they utter more than a hasty alarm. As 

 nesting time approaches or by early March, they may be heard even with little 

 or no cause, so far as the observer can determine. When mating is at the flood, 

 one and not rarely two birds may be seen making short flights above the tops of 

 the reeds. Only once did I hear one of these flying birds call out, and then two 

 birds were in close company. On April 16, 1923, as I stood in a much-traveled 

 roadway bordered on either side by a tidal ditch and small marshes and but 75 

 yards from the bay shore, what proved to be two males and a female Scott's rail 

 came in sight. One and then quickly a second bird crossed the roadway and 

 disappeared into a small clump of scrub palmettos. The smaller, the female, 

 promptly came out onto the open sand near the ditch, walking slowly and fre- 

 quently stopping, the characteristic jerking of body and tail much exagger- 

 a,ted; two other birds now appeared near the palmettos and for two or three 

 minutes they were in full chase in and out of difl'erent small covers. When 

 this encounter ceased, with the running off of one bird, the other came toward 

 the yet visible female and approached her by short runs, with turns and ges- 

 tures of body and wings, at times half open; the female meanwhile moved slowly 

 toward a small patch of reeds, and finally dropped with body quite flat and head 

 stretched well forward, but not quite to the ground, when the male came to her 

 and the mating was complete. 



Nesting. — Doctor Bishop (1904) describes a nest of this rail, as 

 follows : 



Although I looked for nests of Scott's rail on each trip that we made to this 

 and other marshes, as it was evident they were laying, it was not until March 31 

 that I found my first and only nest. This was on a small mangrove island in 

 the Anclote River near its mouth. Surrounding the mangroves was a narrow 

 belt of the same rushes that composed the marsh, and the nest was situated on 

 the ground in the rushes about 10 feet from shore, where they jutted into the 

 mangroves, one of which shaded the nest. The nest was a mass about 1 foot in 

 height composed of small pieces of dead rushes carelessly piled together, lined 

 with fragments of the same, and only slightly hollowed. There were seven eggs 

 in the nest and the same number on April 2, when I collected them, so, although 

 fresh, they were doubtless a full set. On neither occasion did I see or hear the 

 parent, but there can be little doubt of the identification, as Scott's is the only 

 large rail I found near Anclote. 



Eggs. — Except for the fact that they average slightly smaller, the 

 eggs of this rail are not distinguishable from the eggs of the other 

 eastern clapper rails. The measurements of 13 eggs average 40.4 by 

 29.9; the eggs showing the four extremes measured 43.6 by 31.4; and 

 37 bv 27.7 miUimeters. 



