Vol. XXXIl 



1914 



J Simmons, The Louisiana Clapper Rail. oil 



" The eggs in the first nest I packed away, for on my return no 

 sounds were coming from them, and a little later, on opening the 

 eggs, I found the young in them to be stiff and dead in the shells." 



As soon as the young are dry they leave the nest, sometimes 

 within a few hours after they are hatched. When about ten days 

 old the black begins to shade to brown, the feathers peeping out 

 amid the down. By the time they are half as large as the adults 

 they are apparently fully fledged. 



May 31, 1913, I visited the locality mentioned above in company 

 with Mr. R. A. Sell, a naturalist friend of Houston, and we located 

 a nest from which the young had already gone. There were 

 several half shells in the nest, and by following the runways through 

 the tall grass we found several more shells about ten feet away and 

 one fragment at a distance of twenty feet or more, which leads me 

 to believe that the parents help the young out of the shell and carry 

 the shells away as fast as they are cast off. By the time the last 

 three or four eggs are hatching the first young are dry and out of the 

 nest, thus keeping the parent busy so that she is unable to help the 

 last few youngsters. 



From Mr. Pope's voluminous notes I quote the following refer- 

 ences to nests and eggs: "April 15th I again sallied forth in quest 

 of nests and on this trip was rewarded by finding two nests evi- 

 dently just completed but without eggs. Both nests were in the 

 thick marsh grass near bayous and were located by flushing the 

 birds. The nests were of marsh grass blades, which were the only 

 available material in the vicinity, and were placed in the middle 

 of thick clumps of the same grass. The first nest was a rather flat 

 affair, about ten inches across with the inside depth of about three 

 inches; the second was elevated some ten inches in the middle of a 

 clump of marsh grass that was very thick, completely hiding the 

 nest so that it could not be seen except by looking down through 

 the tops of the grass. These two nests were not more than a 

 hundred yards apart. All around the nests were numerous well- 

 beaten paths which the birds used. 



"April 26th I again visited the two nests; nest No. 1 contained 

 one broken egg, while on the ground nearby lay three more, also 

 broken, which had the appearance of having been sucked. The 

 work was credited to a raccoon as tracks of this animal were in 



