1914 ] Simmons, The Louisiana Clapper Rail. 365 



was collected; Mr. Prior tells me that the single specimen collected 

 at Galveston in 1877 was the second specimen referred to by Mr. 

 Sennett in his 1889 disposition. After publishing his revision 

 of the Clapper Rails, and during the middle '90s, Mr. Sennett 

 wrote Mr. Prior to pay particular attention to the Rails as he 

 wished to go further into his disposition of the Texas specimens; 

 evidently Mr. Sennett's death cut short further investigation 

 along this line. As the reader will see, Mr. Sennett apparently 

 ignored his disposition of the two Texas specimens of 1889, in later 

 making his index of records. 



In 1889,^ Mr. J. A. Singley states under the name R. I. cariboeus 

 as follows: "Marshes near mouth of the Nueces River; only two 

 taken. A West India form found in the United States only in 

 Texas." No dates were given, but in another portion of the same 

 paper he says that collections were made in that locality from 

 March 20 to April 24 and from June 16 to 19, 1889. Mr. Singley 

 evidently read Mr. Sennett's paper, hence the name. 



So far as I can find these are the only published records of Texas 

 specimens of Clapper Rails. 



In the following pages I give heretofore unpublished records of 

 the nests and eggs, as well as other data which would throw some 

 light on the life history of the bird. 



Skins of the Texas birds are being studied in connection with the 

 other races of the genus by Mr. Harry C. Oberholser, ornithologist 

 of the U. S. Biological Survey, who will, undoubtedly, in the near 

 future make a revision of the forms of the Clapper Rail. There- 

 fore, in my paper I have made no mention of plumage, measure- 

 ments, or differentiating marks of specimens of the Louisiana 

 Clapper Rail. 



III. Distribution. 



My own observations have, for the most part, been made on the 

 coast prairie southeast of Houston, in Harris County, Texas, and 

 within a seven-mile radius of the court house in that city, this 

 locaUty being about 25 miles from Galveston Bay and 50 miles 



I Singley, J. A. List of Birds Observed at Corpus Christi and on the Lower Rio 

 Grande. Texas Birds, Report of Texas Geol. Survey. Austin, 1893, p. 367. 



