58 CLAPPER RAIL. 



injury to themselves or their relatives ! With what pleasure, perhaps, 

 have some of them observed the gun of one of their murderers, or the pow- 

 der-flask of another, fall overboard ! How delighted have they been to see a 

 canoe overturned by an awkward movement, aijd their enemies struggling 

 to reach the shore, or sticking fast in the mud ! Nor have the minx and 

 racoon come off well, for notwithstanding the expertness of the former 

 at diving, and the cunning of the latter, many have been shot, and the 

 boatmen intend to make caps of their fur. 



In the Carolinas there are some most expert marksmen, of whom I 

 know two who probably .were never surpassed. One of them I have seen 

 shoot fifty Marsh -Hens at fifty successive shots, and the other, I am assu- 

 red, has killed a hundred without missing one. I have heard or read of 

 a French king, who, on starting a partridge, could take a pinch of snufF, 

 then point his gun, and shoot the bird ; but whether this be true or not 

 I cannot say, although I have witnessed as remarkable a feat, for I have 

 seen a Carolinian, furnished with two guns, shoot at and kill four Marsh- 

 Hens as they flew off" at once around him ! On speaking once to a friend 

 of the cruelty of destroying so many of these birds, he answered me as 

 follows : — " It gives variety to life ; it is good exercise, and in all cases 

 affords a capital dinner, besides the pleasure I feel when sending a mess 

 of Marsh-Hens to a friend such as you." 



Rallus crepitans, Gmel. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 713. — Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 756. 



Clapper Kail, Rallus crepitans, Wils. Amer. Ornith. vol. vii. p. 112, but not 



the figure, which is that of the preceding species. — Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 201- 



Adult Male. Plate CCIV. Fig. 1. 



Bill much longer than the head, slender, compressed, slightly curved, 

 rather deep at the base. Upper mandible with the dorsal line almost 

 straight until towards the end, where it is slightly curved, the ridge 

 slightly flattened for a short space at the base, and extending a little 

 on the forehead, narrow and convex to the end ; a deep groove runs on 

 either side parallel to the ridge for two-thirds of the whole length ; the 

 edges inflected, with a very slight notch close to the tip. Nostrils late- 

 ral, linear, direct, open and pervious. Lower mandible with the angle 

 very long, extremely narrow, the sides erect, slightly convex, the edges 

 inflected, the tip narrowed. 



