234 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



course there are well-marked specific differences, but 

 the resemblances are very strong, and in their habits 

 the birds seem to vary only as their respective locali- 

 ties render necessary. 



The rank growth of rush-like grass upon the low- 

 lying flats near the sea-coast affords a moderately 

 secure home for the clapper-rail from April until 

 cold weather drives them southward. They do not 

 go much north of New Jersey, but there they are 

 really very abundant, although the number is de- 

 creasing in consequence of the reckless destruction 

 of their nests, thousands of eggs being gathered. 

 These birds announce their coming by a quaint 

 cackle that, when uttered by hundreds at once, as 

 sometimes happens, sounds like the spring-tide rat- 

 tling of innumerable frogs. 



The King-rail is a rarer bird, found only in fresh- 

 water marshes, and is found in pairs or singly, 

 rather than in colonies; yet it sometimes happens 

 that more than one pair will occupy a very limited 

 bit of marsh. In a marshy tract of about three acres 

 in extent I have yearly, for just twenty years, found 

 a pair of king-rails, and usually find their nest. Un- 

 like the salt-water birds, they do not cackle continu- 

 ously, but when excited utter a kek-kek-kek that tells 

 you the bird is near, but you cannot accurately locate 

 the sound. It varies from a high key to a low one 

 so rapidly that you get the impression there are a 

 number of birds immediately about you. 



They are hard to flush, preferring to run rather 

 than take wing. They nest in the tall grasses, and the 

 young leave the nest and run through the grass when 



