108 BIRDS 



of the species are: Lesser clapper rail, little red rail, and 

 fresh-water mud hen. The male and female are like small 

 king rails, are streaked with dark brown and yellowish- 

 olive above, have reddish-chestnut wing coverts, are plain 

 brown on top of head and back of neck, have a white 

 ej'^ebrow, white throat, breast and sides bright rufous; the 

 flanks, wing linings and under tail covers are broadly 

 barred with dark "brown and white ; eyes red. 



The name of this rail is not as appropriate today as it 

 was when Virginia included nearly all of the territory east 

 of the Mississippi. It is not a local bird, but nests from 

 New York, Ohio, and Illinois northward. Short of wing, 

 with a feeble, fluttering flight when flushed from the marsh, 

 into which it quickly drops again, as if incajjable of going 

 farther, it is said this small bird can nevertheless migrate 

 immense distances. One small straggler from a flock going 

 southward, according to Neltje Blanchan, fell exhausted on 

 the deck of a vessel off the Long Island coast, nearly a 

 hundred miles at sea. 



The rail frequents marshes and boggy swamps. The 

 nest is built in a tuft of weeds or grasses close to the water, 

 is compact, and slightly hollowed. The eggs are cream or 

 buff, sparsely spotted with reddish-brown and obscure lilac, 

 from 1.20 to 1.28 inches long to .90 to .93 broad. The 

 number in a set varies from six to twelve. The eggs are 

 hatched in June. 



The Virginia rail is almost exclusively a fresh-water 

 bird. It is not averse to salt water, but even near the sea 

 it is likely to find out those spots in the bay where fresh- 

 water springs bubble up rather than the brackish. 



