Rail-shooting 277 



California from Santa Barbara to Newport Bay. 

 Rallus levipes is described by Mr. Outram Bangs 

 (Proc. New Eng. Zool. Club, I, 43, 1899) as 

 smaller than either R. obsoletus or R. beldingi, 

 with a more slender bill, and a smaller tarsus and 

 foot. It is darker above than R. obsoletus, the 

 breast and sides a deep cinnamon-rufous, the 

 ground-color of the flanks darker, and the super- 

 ciliary stripe white, instead of rusty. From R. 

 beldingi it differs in having the back feathers 

 more streaked, the breast less of a salmon-color, 

 the flanks browner, with the white broader, and 

 the superciliary stripe white, instead of rusty. 



CLAPPER RAIL 

 (Rallus crepitans) 



Adult male and female Upper parts, olive, sometimes uniform, 

 rarely striped with dusky; the feathers of back and scapulars 

 margined with gray ; top of head, dusky, with a brownish white 

 supra-loral stripe ; side of head, gray ; chin and throat, white ; 

 rest of neck and breast, pale cinnamon-buff; flanks, olive-gray, 

 barred with white ; wing-coverts, brown ; lower mandible and 

 edges of upper, yellowish brown ; upper portion, deep brown ; 

 iris, yellow ; feet, grayish. 



Downy young Similar to R. elegans. 



Measurements Length, 15 inches; wing, 5.50 inches; culmen, 2.25 

 inches ; tarsus, 2 inches. 



Eggs Seven to fifteen, deep cream color with numerous mark- 

 ings of dark purplish brown, measure 1.65 by 1.18 inches. 



Habitat Salt marshes of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the 

 United States, breeding from Louisiana north to Connecticut 

 and probably Massachusetts. Occurs irregularly in Maine, and 

 has been reported from Springfield, Massachusetts, Vermont, 



