140 NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



The nest of this Rail is placed on the ground in a marsh, often fastened 

 in a tussock of grass. It is composed of grass and weeds. 



Hab. Fresh-water marshes of Eastern United States from the Middle States, Northern Illinois, Wis- 

 consin and Kansas southward casually to Massachusetts and Maine. 



570. Californian Clapper Rail — rallus obsoletus. The Californian 

 Clapper Rail is found in the salt marshes of the coast of California. It 

 has a deep cinnamon-colored breast; the back and scapulars grayish olive, 

 obscurely striped with dusky. Below it is quite reddish. Mr. W. Otto 

 Emerson in the "Ornithologist and Oologist" for September, 1885, describes 

 the nest as bulky, rather flat and solid, and in some instances as placed on 

 long salt grass bent down in a mass, some of the blades woven in and out 

 of the standing stocks to keep it in place; others are placed on salt 

 weeds in open. ground, instead of on the long salt grass. These nests were 

 found in the salt marshes bordering the San Francisco Bay, Cal., four 

 miles from Haywards. Mr. Emerson says there is no variation in the 

 ground color in five sets of eggs which he collected, except in three, 

 which have single eggs with a grayish ground, and the markings in one 

 set being different, having more blotches than others. Another has eggs 

 with a number of lines over the larger end. Two complements seem to 

 have the lavender spots and specks predominating and more scattered over 

 the whole shell. One hundred eggs of R. I. crepitans before me have the 

 same characteristics which Mr. Emerson mentions in the eggs of R. 

 obsoletus and these variations, more or less, are to be found in large series 

 of nearly all eggs. He also says the ground color is of a creamy- 

 buff, but not so strong as in a set of the eggs of the Eastern Clapper Rail 

 before him. One set of seven was taken June 3, 1883 ; two of nine April 

 18, 1885, and three of eight May 4, 1885. A set of eight measure as 

 follows: 1.75 by 1.20, 1.69 by 1.20, 1.66 by 1.18, 1.77 by 1.22, 1.79 by 

 1.22, 1.73 by 1.24. 



571. Clapper Rail — rallus longirostris crepitans. Pale buffy- 

 yellow, dotted and spotted with reddish brown and obscure lilac; six to 

 fifteen, averaging 1.67 by 1. 12. The eggs are ovoidal in shape, tapering 

 slightly toward the smaller end. The Clapper Rail or Salt-water Marsh 

 Hen is an abundant bird on the salt marshes of the Atlantic coast from 

 New Jersey southward and is resident from the southern border of Mary- 

 land southward. It is found casually north to Massachusetts. Breeds in 

 profusion in the marshes of the Carolinas, placing the nest on the ground 

 in a marsh, sometimes in a tussock of grass or a pile of seaweed just out 

 of the water; it is made of a large mass of dried grasses and weeds and 

 is slightly hollowed. It is often called Mud Hen, a name commonly ap- 



