260 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE YO SEMITE 



Virginia Raii,. Rallus virginianus Linnaeus 



Field characters. — Size of Eobin or Killdeer; body very narrow (compressed); bill 

 slender, over 1^/4 inches long; tail very short, upstanding; breast cinnamon colored, back 

 streaked with olive brown and black. Walks with jerking movement of head and neck. 



Occurrence. — E«sident in small numbers in marshy situations. Noted at Smith Creek, 

 Snelling, and Lagrange. Lives secluded, in streamside or pond-margin thickets, rarely 

 venturing into the open. 



Only the observer who can take time to search thoroughly the dense 

 vegetation of the marshlands will be at all likely to see the Virgina Rail. 

 Even if present plentifully, the bird is so elusive that a clear view of one 

 is obtained only by chance. At Lagrange, on December 10, 1915, a small 

 rail was heard and seen, and the next day a Virginia Rail was caught in 

 a steel trap. At Snelling, on January 9, 1915, a bird of this species was 

 caught in an oat-baited mouse trap placed in a marshy situation close to 

 the Merced River. The stealthy, mouse-like habits of the bird are indicated 

 by these captures, which, as far as bait was concerned, were in all prob- 

 ability purely accidental. The Virginia Rail's food consists almost entirely 

 of small invertebrate animals, in search of which it slips through the 

 narrow passageways in swamp vegetation. The mouse trap had been set 

 in such a natural runway. 



Mr. Donald D. McLean (1916, p. 229) records the finding of a nest of 

 the Virginia Rail, at Smith Creek, east of Coulterville, on June 5, 1916. 

 The structure was tower-like, composed of grasses from the surrounding 

 wet meadow, and was 8 inches in diameter and about the same in height. 

 The 10 brown-and-lilac-spotted eggs were just beginning to be incubated. 



The grass clump in which the nest was situated was not disturbed when 

 the meadow was mowed. When anyone approached the vicinity, the 

 incubating bird would slip off quietly; sometimes she could be heard 

 splashing through the water as she ran away. Usually she did not go 

 more than six feet from the nest, and there would remain standing quietly, 

 appearing merely as a dark shadow. She uttered occasionally a low cluck- 

 ing sound. 



Nothing was seen of the male until June 18, when a shrill whistle came 

 from him as he stood some distance away in the grass. This was answered 

 by a similar but softer note from his mate. The male showed himself 

 momentarily as he skulked through the grass, trying apparently to distract 

 attention from the nest. 



On June 19 there were 6 coal-black young in the nest. They had black- 

 ringed, pink bills and their feet were large in proportion to their bodies. 

 The female now overcame her shyness and walked out into the open within 



