BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 159 



There is a fine male specimen in the Peabody Academy that was caught in a 

 garden in Salem, on July ioth, 1894, and kept alive three days. Mr. George 

 Patterson shot a King Rail at Ipswich in October, 190 1, and gave it to the 

 Peabody Academy. I saw the bird, in 1904, in Mr. Welch's taxidermist shop 

 in Salem. These two last have never before been recorded. 



I have heard of at least two other large Rails in Essex County that have 

 been shot and eaten without a wing or a claw left to tell the tale ! They were 

 called Clapper Rails by the gunners but were very possibly King Rails. Howe 

 and Allen 1 give the Nahant record and two others outside the County. 



[211] Rallus crepitans (Gmel.). Clapper Rail. It is easy to mistake the King Rail for 

 the Clapper Rail. Two specimens of King Rails recorded under that bird were at first thought 

 by the collectors to be Clapper Rails. In fact, several gunners, with whom I have talked on the 

 subject, claim to have killed Clapper Rails, but were ignorant of the existence of King Rails. 

 By their description alone it is of course impossible to distinguish between the two species. In 

 the absence of specimens, I have therefore put the Clapper Rail in the doubtful list, notwith- 

 standing the following oft-quoted record from the Naturalist's Guide : " Mr. J. F. Le Baron 

 informed me that he shot a specimen [of Clapper Rail], some years ago, at Ipswich." 2 



84 [212] Rallus virginianus Linn. 

 Virginia Rail. 



Common summer resident; April 11 to October 13. 

 Eggs : May 1 2 to May 3 1 . 



The Topsfield marshes of the Ipswich River are favorite haunts of this bird. 

 Here, in the spring nights, one may hear his cut, cutta, cutta, suggestive of a very 

 vigorous telegraphic machine. I have only once found this Rail in the salt 

 marshes, and on that occasion in a marsh reached by the highest tides only. 



This was on August 23d, 1904, and the bird behaved in its characteristic 

 way. As it rose on feeble wings within ten feet of me, its long curved bill was 

 noticeable, and at once distinguished it from the short-billed Sora Rail. It soon 

 dropped into the grass within thirty feet, but although I ran at once to the spot 

 and rapidly tramped about through the grass, it had run off like a mouse and 

 could not be flushed again. 



' R. H. Howe, Jr., and G. M. Allen : The Birds of Massachusetts, p. 17, 1901. 

 2 C. J. Maynard : The Naturalist's Guide, p. 145, 1870. 



