° 1914 J Simmons, The Louisiana Clapper Rail. 381 



interesting. He found that the best time to make observations 

 on the feeding habits was shortly after a "norther," which blew 

 a great deal of water out of the bay into the Gulf, thus causing low 

 water in the bayous and sloughs which ran into the bay. At such 

 times the Rails would wade out in the mud and silt where the water 

 had receded, to gather the small Crustacea (minute crabs, etc.) 

 left stranded. 



He says that " At one point I squatted on my heels and remained 

 stationary for a few moments and was rewarded by seeing a Rail 

 walk out of the grass into the mud and begin feeding, which it did 

 by thrusting its bill into the soft mud and feeling around and 

 stirring its food to the top, now and then securing a shrimp or small 

 minnow. I was advised by an old fisherman who lives on the bay 

 shore about three miles from Flake, that he had often seen these 

 birds feeding on young Diamond-backed Terrapin, which were 

 once quite plentiful in this part of the bay and which deposited 

 their eggs in the shell banks along the shore, the eggs hatching and 

 the young taking to the adjacent marsh and bayous, probably to 

 escape their numerous enemies in the bay. There they fell before 

 the Rails." 



The contents of the stomachs of six of the birds secured on a trip 

 to the marshes on October 12, 1911, were mostly shrimp, minnows, 

 a few water bugs and slugs, and two had fragments of small crabs. 



From the deck of the schooner, "The Two Brothers," mentioned 

 previously as being near Flake, on Bolivar Peninsula, Mr. Pope 

 had an excellent opportunity to watch the Rails feeding. He says : 

 "On warm days the 'fiddler' or fighting crabs would crawl out of 

 their holes around the old schooner and were eagerly devoured by 

 the Rails. After catching one of the crabs they would usually re- 

 move the large claw before swallowing the victim. This was often 

 accomplished with the assistance of a neighbor who would hold 

 the crab in his beak while the other wrenched off the objectionable 

 limb; but this method was not always satisfactory to the bird that 

 removed the claw, as the one that held the crab usually proceeded 

 to bolt it while the other was left to hold the claw, or rather to 

 drop it. On one occasion when the crabs were not plentiful, a 

 Rail found and tackled an unusually large 'fiddler,' which it 

 mauled around in the mud for some timet without apparent effect. 



