THE CALIFORNIA CLAPPER RAIL. . 605 
No. 239. 
CALIFORNIA CLAPPER RAIL. 
A. O. U. No. 210. Rallus obsoletus Ridgw. 
Description.—Adult: Above olive-gray or grayish olive, broadly, but 
usually not sharply, striped with blackish brown; eyelids, short superciliary line, 
chin, and upper throat, whitish; fore-neck, chest, and breast, uniform deep cinna- 
mon, the sides of the neck dull grayish cinnamon; sides, flanks, and axillars, dark 
brown, narrowly bordered with white, the white, in turn, with dusky. Downy 
young: Uniform glossy black. Length of adult: 17.50-18.00 (444.5-457.2) ; 
wing 6.63 (168.4); bill 2.40 (61) ; tarsus 2.18 (55.4). 
Recognition Marks.—Small Crow size; olive-gray above, reddish below; 
the only large Rail in range. 
Nesting.—Nest: a raised platform of dried grasses or tules, supported by 
grass tussock in swamp. Eggs: 6-15, buffy white, or paler brownish buff, spar- 
ingly dotted and spotted with reddish brown and purplish gray. Av. size, 1.75 x 
1.24 (44.5 xX 31.5). Season: May; one brood. 
General Range.— ‘Salt marshes of the Pacific Coast, from Washington( ?) 
to Lower California.” 
Range in Washington.—Gray’s Harbor. Also lay reports from vicinity of 
Tacoma and Seattle. 
Authority.—Hubbard, Zoe, Vol. III., July 1892, p. 142. 
WE are not certain whether this large marsh-prowler is a resident with 
us or whether our meager records are due only to the visits of ambitious ex- 
plorers, the vanguard of that mighty army of those who, like ourselves, feel 
the lure of the North. This species has its center of abundance in the salt 
marshes which adjoin San Francisco Bay. ‘“They are either tame or exceed- 
ingly stupid birds—I believe the latter, for they may be captured alive during 
the early spring and late fall, as they trust to protective coloring and do not 
try to escape until too late. During the breeding season they are somewhat 
more shy, but even then it is nearly impossible to flush them because they skulk 
or dive rather than fly, and refuse to desert the nest. About the middle of April 
they commence to make a nest of marsh grass on a tussock, and from that time 
on are devoted to it. Eight or nine eggs are laid, and incubation lasts nineteen 
to twenty-three days. As is well known, certain varieties of marsh birds build 
several nests, using but one. The ‘dummy’ sometimes serves as a shelter for the 
adult male; sometimes the making of it seems to have been a mere pastime; 
and, occasionally, as in the case of the clapper rail, it forms a convenient plat- 
form or nursery on which the young can scramble for a sun-bath when weary 
with their first swimming-lessons. These unused nests are commonly placed 
close to the one occupied by the brood and closely resemble it”’ (Mrs. Wheelock )*. 
Ke a. Birds of California, by Irene Grosvenor Wheelock; pp. xxviii+ 578; Chicago, A. C. McClurg & 
'0., 1904. 
