98 ALONG THE HILLSBOROUGH. 



The tall grass about the borders of the 

 island was alive with clapper rails. Before 

 I rose in the morning I heard them crying 

 in full chorus; and now and then during 

 the day something would happen, and all 

 at once they would break out with one 

 sharp volley, and then instantly all would 

 be silent again. Theirs is an apt name, 

 Rallus crepitans. Once I watched two of 

 them in the act of crepitating, and ever 

 after that, when the sudden uproar burst 

 forth, I seemed to see the reeds full of 

 birds, each with his bill pointing skyward, 

 bearing his part in the salvo. So far as 

 I could perceive, they had nothing to fear 

 from human enemies. They ran about the 

 mud on the edge of the grass, especially 

 in the morning, looking like half-grown 

 pullets. Their specialty was crab-fishing, 

 at which they were highly expert, plunging 

 into the water up to the depth of their 



first printed, was some years too late. Mr. Ridgway, 

 in his Manual of North American Birds (1887), had already 

 described a subspecies of Florida redwings under the 

 name of Agelaius phaeniceus bryanti. Whether my New 

 Smyrna birds should come under that title cannot be told, 

 of course, in the absence of specimens ; but on the strength 

 of the song I venture to think it highly probable. 



