108 BIRDS OF NORTH CAROLINA 



This is the common rail of fresh-water marshes, and it appears to dwell wherever 

 these are found. Its nest is constructed among the rank grasses or rushes of its 

 haunts, and the pile of dead cattail or bulrush leaves which it usually gathers for 

 this purpose is sometimes as much as twelve inches in height. Freshets are par- 

 ticularly destructive to these nests, and large numbers of eggs are thus annually 

 destroyed. The King Rail is an adept at hiding, and, when disturbed, its com- 

 pressed body, propelled by long stout legs, passes with great rapidity through the 

 thickest growth of water-plants. When forced to take wing, its flight is at first 

 slow and exceedingly clumsy. 



FIG. 70. KING RAIL. 



C. S. Brimley states that at Raleigh, where it is a common bird, it usually appears 

 about April 1 and departs about September 1. Single ones, however, have been 

 taken later in autumn and some have been seen even in winter. King Rails breed 

 in May, June, and July. 



88. Rallus crepitans crepitans (Gmel.}. CLAPPER RAIL. 



Ad. Upperparts very pale greenish olive, the feathers widely margined with gray; wings 

 and tail grayish brown; wing-coverts pale cinnamon much washed with gray; throat white; 

 neck and breast pale, between ochraceous and cream-buff, more or less washed with grayish; 

 belly and sides gray or brownish gray, barred with white. Downy young. -Glossy black. L., 

 14.50; W., 5.00; Tar., 2.00; B., 2.50. 



Remarks. The Clapper Rail may always be known from the King Rail by its generally gray- 

 ish instead of brownish or blackish upperparts, and its much paler breast and flanks and paler 

 wing-coverts. (Chap., Birds of E. N. A.) 



Range. Salt-marshes of Atlantic coast, breeding from North Carolina to Connecticut. 



Range in North Carolina. Salt-marshes of the coastal region. 



Clapper Rails are abundant residents in the salt-marshes along the coast, their 

 loud rattling calls constituting the most characteristic bird-notes of the region. 

 They are regarded as game-birds, and are commonly shot in the autumn from boats 

 punted through the marshes at high tide. In some localities they are particularly 

 numerous in summer. Such a place Pearson found "Jack's Grass" to be on May 13, 

 1898. We quote from notes made at the time: "This is a low island of perhaps 

 twenty acres, situated in Pamlico Sound, very near New Inlet. A channel runs on 



