382 Simmons, The Louisiana Clapper Rail. [July 



Suddenly, as if getting an idea, it left the crab and disappeared on 

 the other side of the schooner, to return a moment later with a 

 companion, the two soon disarming Mr. Crab. Now, I presume 

 the same Rail came back; they are so much alike it is impossible to 

 tell one from the other under such conditions, but from the way the 

 birds went straight to the spot where the crab was left, I did not 

 doubt the bird in the lead being the one that found the crab. Which 

 one got the crab I cannot say, as after scuffling over him, they dis- 

 appeared from my sight in the tall grass." 



Though chiefly carnivorous, subsisting as they do on small uni- 

 valve shell-fish and Crustacea, the Rails never probe the mud like 

 snipe, nor strain it as do the ducks. The food they gather is 

 always in view and never secured from deep in the mud or silt. 



Near Houston, inland from the seaside marshes, the food of the 

 Rails is chiefly the small snail forms so abundant in the marshes. 



X. Fatalities. 



Once common, the birds are rapidly becoming scarce. If pro- 

 tection is not afforded them at once they will soon be wiped out 

 entirely. Hunters kill numbers of them during the hunting season. 

 In fact, it is one of the easiest of the water birds to secure on the 

 wing, and therefore is one of the first to be shot by the amateur 

 marksman. 



Mr. Pope observed that numbers of them fell victims to steel 

 traps which he had set in the pathways of the mink in the marshes 

 near Flake. These Rails caught in the traps were usually devoured 

 by mink if caught in the night, and most of those caught were 

 taken then. 



The majority of the nests located by Mr. Pope in the Bolivar 

 marshes in 1912 were usually found destroyed before the sets of 

 eggs were complete, probably by mink, raccoon or opossum, as 

 tracks of these animals were in evidence in the immediate vicinity 

 of the several nests. The eggs remaining in the nests or on the 

 ground nearby had the appearance of having been sucked. On 

 Harbor Island Mr. Farley found that the Rails were comparatively 

 safe from such enemies, there being no raccoons or other small 



