286 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



fowls often, when in pursuit of other coast-birds, on the marshes 

 about Cape May and Cape Henlopen, but never thought it worth 

 while to go a foot out of our way to procure them, as they are at 

 best but an unsavory dish for the table; and we trust that we 

 have never encouraged the weasel-like propensity to take life from 

 sheer fondness of carnage, or perhaps to indulge a morbid taste to 

 make a great display by the magnitude of our game-bag. 



DESCRIPTION. 



"The clapper-rail measures fourteen inches in length and 

 eighteen in extent; the bill is two inches and a quarter long, 

 slightly bent, pointed, grooved, and of a reddish-brown color ; iris 

 of the eye dark red; nostril oblong, pervious; crown, neck, and 

 back, black, streaked with dingy brown; chin and line over the 

 eye brownish-white; auricular dusky; neck before, and whole 

 breast, of the same red-brown as that of the preceding species, 

 wing-coverts dark chestnut ; quill-feathers plain dusky ; legs red- 

 dish-brown ; flanks and vent black, tipped or barred with white. 

 The males and females are nearly alike. 



" The young birds of the first year have the upper parts of an 

 olive-brown, streaked with pale slate; wings pale-brown olive; 

 chin, and part of the throat, white ; breast ash-color, tinged with 

 brown; legs and feet a pale horn-color." 



