226 FEATHERED GAME 



England than is the clapper rail. There are 

 perhaps half a dozen authentic records of its 

 capture in the State of Maine during a period of 

 eighteen years, one of these falling to the 

 writer's credit on the 19th of September, 1895. 

 So far as is known but three other specimens 

 have been taken, two of these from the Dyke 

 Marsh in Falmouth, (from which place came 

 my own specimen) since the record of the first 

 specimen, taken on Scarborough Marsh, Octo- 

 ber 8, 1881, by Mr. A. G. Rogers. I have never 

 known of the capture of a clapper rail in the 

 same neighborhood or anywhere near, although 

 our marshes are all of the sea and the clapper 

 rail is supposed to prefer such places to the 

 swamps of the fresh water ; moreover, the clap- 

 per is said to be a more common species than 

 the King Rail in all parts of the Atlantic coast 

 line. In the southern part of New England the 

 King Rail is more common than with us. 



This bird is almost an exact counterpart of 

 the Virginia Rail, so familiar to all marsh gun- 

 ners, but made up into a larger package. His 

 length varies from seventeen to nineteen inches ; 

 extent from twenty-three to twenty-five inches. 

 As may be seen this is the largest of our rails 



