gon south to South America. It was at one time quite 

 plentiful in California, but its handsome plumes at- 

 tracted the eye of the milliner, which in turn aroused 

 the cupidity of the market hunter, and these beautiful 

 birds are now rare north of Lower California and Mex- 

 ico, and are rapidly decreasing even there. The red- 

 dish egret (Ardea rufescens) is an inhabitant of Lower 

 California and Mexico, not coming north of these places. 

 Though not as handsome as the white egret, it is also 

 being exterminated for the same purposes. 



The birds that I have so far mentioned, while not 

 game birds, are so constantly before the eyes of the 

 sportsmen who engage in waterfowl shooting that they 

 can not help but be interested in them. They add a 

 variety and a beauty to the scene, and many an hour's 

 wait, that otherwise would have been tedious, has 

 passed away pleasantly in watching the graceful move- 

 ments of some one or more of these stately waders. 



THE CRANES, RAILS, GALLINUL 



To the order, Paludicolae, belong the cranes, rails, gal- 

 linules and coots, or mudhens, as they are commonly 

 called. Of the members of this order we are concerned 

 only with the cranes, rails and coots. The sandhill crane 

 (Grus mericana) is a common visitor to all parts of the 

 Coast, but more plentiful in the interior valleys than 

 near the seashore. They are generaally hard to ap- 

 proach and for that reason they are but little hunted by 

 our sportsmen. The whooping crane (Grus amercana) 

 once common throughout the middle states, is still met 

 with to considerable extent in Mexico, but it is by no 

 means a common visitor. 



The California clapper rail, known also as the San 

 Mateo rail (Rail us obsoletus), is the largest as well as 

 the most important of the rail family in this section. 

 At one time the clapper rail was very plentiful in cer- 

 tain localities in California and furnished abundant 

 sport, though rather of a tame nature, to those who 

 hunted them. Being an easy bird to kill and unsus- 

 picious, they have been rapidly reduced in numbers un- 

 til now they are in danger of extinction unless laws 

 are enacted giving them better protection. The clap- 

 per is only a straggler south of San Francisco bay. 



The Virginia rail (Rallus virginianus), a species not 

 more than half the size of the clapper rail, is found 

 sparingly over the Coast, but principally on the fresh 

 water marshes. 



The little yellow rail (Porzana noveboracensis) is 

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