GENUS 78. RALLUS. RAIL, 

 SPECIES 1. R. CREPITANS. 



CLAPPER RAIL. 

 [Plate LXIL Fig. 2.] 



Arct.Zool. JVb. 407. TURT. Syst. p. 430. LATH. Syn. v. 3, p. 

 229, JVu. 2. PEALE'S Museum, JVo. 4400. 



THIS is a very numerous and well known species, inhabiting 

 our whole Atlantic coast from New England to Florida. It is 

 designated by different names, such as the Mud-hen, Clapper 

 Rail, Meadow-clapper, Big Rail, &c. &c. Though occasionally 

 found along the swampy shores, and tide waters, of our large 

 rivers, its principal residence is in the salt marshes. It is a bird 

 of passage, arriving on the coast of New Jersey about the twen- 

 tieth of April, and retiring again late in September. I suspect 

 that many of them winter in the marshes of Georgia and Flori- 

 da, having heard them very numerous, at the mouth of Savan- 

 nah river, in the month of February. Coasters and fishermen 

 often hear them while on their migrations, in spring, generally 

 a little before daybreak. The shores of New Jersey, within the 

 beach, consisting of an immense extent of flat marsh, covered 

 with a coarse reedy grass, and occasionally overflowed by the 

 sea, by which it is also cut up into innumerable islands by nar- 

 row inlets, seem to be the favourite breeding place for these 

 birds, as they are there acknowledged to be more than double 

 in number to all other marsh fowl. 



The Clapper Rail, or as it is generally called, the Mud-hen, 

 soon announces its arrival in the salt marshes, by its loud, harsh 

 and incessant cackling, which very much resembles that of a 

 Guinea fowl. This noise is most general during the night; and 



is said to be always greatest before a storm. About the twenti- 

 VOL. in. A a 



