THE NIDIOLOGIST. 



153. 



Among the California Clapper 

 Rail. 



BY H. R. TAYIvOR. 



MY first experience in taking the eggs 

 of the California Clapper Rail was 

 such as to dampen my ardor for the 

 time being. My companion and I had 

 gone quite a distance up a slough in a sail- 

 boat, when he suggested that we remove 

 the mast and sail, leave them on the beach, 

 and row up the remaining distance. 



He tacked in towards shore, running the 

 prow of the boat into the mud bank. We 

 swung about until we pointed to windward 

 and I climbed out for ard and tried to get 

 the mast out. I didn't know exactly how 

 to do it, and while experimenting the little 

 sail-boat slipped off the mud. 



Before I knew it the wind had caught the 

 sail on t'other side, and the boom had 

 swung around and was pressing gently and 

 yet more forcibly on the aft side of my 

 trousers, while the boat naturally careened 

 until she was about to fill. Rather than 

 upset the boat or get knocked into the water 

 I took the alternative and jumped in ! Of 

 course I had all m}^ clothes on, and with 

 the water up to my armpits I walked 

 sedately to shore, while the boatswain 

 fairly exploded with laughter. 



But the water, though wet, was not cold, 

 and I had no ill effects of the incident but 

 rather enjoyed it, especially after we had 

 the luck to find a nest with nine eggs of the 

 Rail. 



This nest (from which the bird flewj was 

 a platform affair, composed of Axy mat- 

 ted stems of marsh grass, slightly hollowed 

 and built on the ground in the middle of a 

 small clump of low marsh bushes, which 

 grow from two to three feet high. The 

 nest was about four feet from a small salt 

 water slough. 



This year I have traveled far in search of 

 the nests of this Rail, and as a result of 

 days of wandering over marshes and across 



sloughs have secured a number of sets of 

 eggs. 



It is more than ever my opinion that the 

 California Clapper Rail are becoming rap- 

 idly thinned in numbers. The pot-hunter 

 and his dog and gun have done the work. 



The Rail at flood tide will often hide its 

 head. Ostrich-like, in a tuft of grass, and is 

 naturally slaughtered by the man in the 

 boat. 



I was talking recently with one of our 

 old-time professional hunters about the 

 scarcity of Rail in Alameda county. "They 

 used to be common as them little marsh 

 chippies," said he, "They'd nest wherever 

 there was a little high ground, and some- 

 times on floating tule stems and such stuff". 

 They used to nest right here by my house 

 in Alameda. And in the marshes I have 

 seen their addled eggs floating about as 

 common as could be. 



"And now?" said the. old hunter deri- 

 sively repeating my question, Nozv, they're 

 all gone. I guess if you were offered a 

 thousand dollars apiece for Rail out here 

 you wouldn't get rich. Two birds was all 

 I saw last 57ear. I tell you the city sports 

 are the cause of it. They come over with 

 their dogs all through the summer when 

 the birds are nesting and kill everything 

 they find. I see the Supervisors have 

 passed a law against shooting them here 

 for two 5^ears, but its too late now*" 



By all accounts the California Clapper 

 Rail is much less abundant everywhere and 

 I therefore account myself in unusual luck 

 to have been able to note a few interesting 

 nesting habits this season. 



All of the nests seen, with one excep- 

 tion, were built on the ground, and nearly 

 all were composed simply of dry stems of 

 the marsh grass which grew plentifully 

 near the nest . In one case dry reed stems 

 were used with the marsh grass. 



The nest shown in the illustration was 

 an oddity for a Rail's nest, being built in 

 the middle of a marsh bush, about a foot 

 above srround, The ground surrounding 



