NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 291 



C. J. Maynard (1896) writes— 



The coasts of South Carolina and Georgia are low, and many sounds make in 

 to the land, which receive the contents of numerous rivers. Between these 

 sounds, are islands, back of which are creeks of varying widths, in which the tide 

 rises and falls; while between these bodies of water and the mainland, are ex- 

 tensive marshes, many miles in width. These level tracts are scarcely elevated 

 above low water mark, consequently are overflowed by every flood tide, and dur- 

 ing the extreme high water that occurs at the full of the moon even the grass 

 tops of all but some of the more elevated spots are submerged. As remarked, 

 these marshes are widely spread, extending from the islands to the westward, as 

 far as eye can reach, and stretching from the extreme northern confines of the 

 State of South Carolina, quite to Florida. Many aquatic birds find a home in 

 this lonely reach of country, but by far the most abundant, at all seasons are the 

 clapper rails, and their harsh voices may be heard at all hours of the day and 

 night, as they skulk through the grass or run along the margins of the creeks in 

 search of food. Like all the members of this genus, these rails are difficult to 

 tart, and the only way in which they can be secured in numbers, is to watch the 

 occurrence of a spring tide which, overflowing nearly everything, forces the birds 

 to take refuge in the few clumps of grass left uncovered, or they will sit upon the 

 floating debris and quietly await the falling of the water. 



Nesting. — The nesting habits of this subspecies do not differ mate- 

 rially from those of its more northern representative, as the following 

 account by Doctor Bishop (1904) will illustrate: 



Although I have taken incubated eggs by May 2, the greater number of rails 

 do not begin to lay until about this date, and some postpone this duty until the 

 latter half of the month. The nests are scattered everywhere over the marshes, 

 the bases of some resting in the water, and of others on dry ground. In the 

 rushes a spot is selected under a thick mass of semiprostrate stems; in the coarse 

 marsh grass as thick a clump as possible is chosen, and the tips of the grass seem 

 to be bent over as a canopy to the nest. This bending over of the tops of the 

 grass is sometimes sufficiently evident to draw one's attention to the spot. The 

 nest is a slightly hollowed heap of small pieces of dead rush or grass stem. 



Troup D. Perry writes to me that this rail does not always breed 

 in wet places, as he has found it nesting in Beaufort County, South 

 Carolina, on high, dry land, where the nest was a slight hollow in the 

 ground, lined with bits of dry grass, and 30 or 40 feet from a creek. 

 He once found a nest on the top of a sand dune 15 feet high and 

 about 200 feet from any water; the nest was a slight hollow, lined 

 with dry grass, among the lavender bushes that covered the sand dune. 



Eggs. — The eggs of this subspecies are indistinguishable from those 

 of the other clapper rails. The measurements of 40 eggs average 

 41.5 by 29.1 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 

 46.2 by 28.8, 41.3 by 30.6, 36.6 by 27.9, 37.8 by 27.8 millimeters. 



Behavior. — Doctor Bishop (1904) says of this bird; 



At all times Wayne's rail is a shy and secretive bird, never flying if it can help 

 it, but an adept at running, dodging and hiding, and can seldom be forced from 

 the grass without the aid of a dog. Against the wind it can not fly, and even 

 with the wind its progress is slow and seldom sustained for more than 100 yards. 

 With a fresh breeze blowing I have seen a rail roll over and over when it attempted 

 to alight on the hard sand. 



