Rails, Gallinules, Coots 



To get a good look at these birds in their grassy retreats is 

 no easy matter. Row a scow over the submerged grass at high 

 tide as far as it will go, listen for the skulking clatterers, and if 

 near by, plunge from the bow into the muddy meadow, and you 

 may have the good fortune to flush a bird or two that rises flut- 

 tering just above the sedges, flies a few yards trailing its legs 

 behind it, and drops into the grasses again before you can press 

 the button of your camera. A rarer sight still is to see a clapper 

 rail running, with head tilted downward and tail upward, in a 

 ludicrous gait, threading in and out of the grassy maze. Stand- 

 ing on one leg, with the toes of the other foot curled in, is a 

 favorite posture; or one may be detected climbing up the reeds 

 to pick off the seeds at the top, clasping the stem with the help 

 of its low, short, hind toes. A rail's feet are wide spread because 

 of long toes in front, that prevent the bird from sinking into the 

 mud and scum it so lightly runs over. It can swim fairly well, 

 but not fast. As might be expected in birds so shy, these be- 

 come more active toward dusk, their favorite feeding hour, and 

 certainly more noisy. 



Not even to nest will a clapper rail go much beyond tide 

 water. From six to twelve cream white eggs spotted with 

 reddish brown are laid in a rude platform of reeds and finer 

 grasses on the ground, where they must always be damp if not 

 wet; yet who ever finds a mother rail keeping the eggs warm ? 



The King Rail, the Red Breasted Rail, or Fresh Water Marsh 

 Hen {Ra/liis elegaus) differs from its more abundant salt water 

 prototype chiefly in being larger and more brightly colored, and 

 possessing a more musical voice. Olive brown, varied with 

 black above; rich chestnut on the wing coverts; reddish cinnamon 

 on breast that fades to white on the throat; sides and underneath 

 dusky, barred with white, are features to be noted in distinguish- 

 ing it from the grayish clapper. A marsh overgrown with sedges 

 and drained by a sluggish fresh water stream makes the ideal 

 feeding and nesting ground of the king rail from the southern 

 and middle states northward to Ontario. In habits these two 

 rails are closely related. Mr. Frank Chapman describes the king 

 rail's call as "a loud, startling hup, hup, blip, hup. hup, uttered 

 with increasing rapidity until the syllables were barely dis- 

 tinguishable, then ending somewhat as it began. The whole 



178 



