2214 



THE GAME BIRDS AND RAILS 



than the anterior end of the nasal groove. In all the other genera mentioned below 

 the bill is shorter than the middle toe and claw. The clapper rail (R. longirostris) 

 is a well-known North- American form, with the general color above ashy gray 

 streaked with blackish brown, the chin and throat white, fore-neck ashy brown, 

 shading into isabelline on the chest and upper breast, and into whitish on the 

 tinder parts, the flanks being barred with grayish brown and white. This bird is a 

 resident in many of the Southeastern States, but only met with in the salt 

 marshes near the Atlantic, unless driven inshore by high tides. In spring con- 



MALE AND FEMALE CAROLINA RAILS. 



siderable migrations take place during the night, and are always conducted in 

 perfect silence. Audubon writes that ' ' from about the beginning of March to that 

 of April, the salt marshes resound with the cries of the clapper rail, which resemble 

 the syllables cac, cac, cac, cac, cti, catra, catra. The commencement of the cry, 

 which is heard quite as frequently during day as by night, is extremely loud and 

 rapid its termination lower and protracted. At the report of a gun, when thou- 

 sands of these birds instantaneously burst forth with their cries, you may imagine 



