RAILS 139 



fresh water marshes, during the breeding season at least, but 

 seems to have been taken on salt marshes here. The cry is 

 quoted by Chapman as "bup-bup-bup-bup-bup" uttered with 

 increasing rapidity. The birds skulk through the marsh grass 

 and do not take flight until forced to do so by danger. 



The nest is usually placed on the ground in a tussock of 

 sedges or grass in a fresh water marsh, and is composed of 

 sedges and grasses. Six to fourteen eggs are laid and these are 

 bufFy white, quite heavily spotted with reddish brown and 

 lilac. Eleven which were taken in Palo Alto County, Iowa, 

 June 14, 1891, measure 1.59 x 1.17, 1.58 x 1.18, 1.54 x 1.16, 

 1.52 x 1.16, 1.55 X 1.17, 1.52 x 1.15, 1.55 x 1.15, 1.55 x 1.16, 

 1.50 X 1.15, 1.58 X 1.16, 1.55 x 1.16. The species is not 

 known to nest in Maine. The young are said to be covered 

 with a glossy black down. 



211. Rallus crepitans Gmel. Clapper Rail. 



Plumage : above pale greenish olive, the feathers being widely margined 

 with grayish so as to give a grayish cast to the upper parts which are often 

 very indistinctly striped with darker ; cheek below eye gray ; throat white ; 

 neck and breast cream buff with an ashy tinge on chest ; flanks and belly 

 grayish brown, broadly barred with white. Wing 5.50 to 6.20 ; culmen 2.35 ; 

 tarsus 2.06. 



Geog. Dist. — Salt marshes of the Atlantic coast of the United States, 

 breeding from southern Connecticut southward; resident from Virginia 

 southward ; casual north to Maine. 



County Records. — Androscoggin ; one taken at Sabattus Pond in 1874 by 

 C. F. Nason, (Smith, F. & S. 20, p. 124). Cumberland ; no record now Brown's 

 being open to doubt and withdrawn by him (Brown, Auk. 1907, p. 95). Sag- 

 adahoc ; a female was killed at Popham Beach, October 12, 1900, and about 

 two weeks later I shot another but could not find it, (Spinney). York; 

 (Brown, B. N. 0. C. 4, p. 108). 



The species is primarily a bird of the salt marshes, skulking 

 through the grass and sedges, and can be driven to take wing 

 only in great extremity. 



They usually nest in rather scattered colonies on the salt 

 marshes south of our limits, making a nest of grass and reeds 

 which is on the ground and well concealed in the grass or 



