CLAPPER RAIL. 



19 



Their food consists of different kinds of insects, their eggs and 

 larvae, and also of nuts and berries. It is principally gathered from 

 trees. For their young, they chiefly pick up small caterpillars. 

 They are very useful in forests and orchards, as they destroy the 

 insects that infest the trees. Frequently, after a few hard raps with 

 their bills on a small limb, the}^ run round to the opposite side to 

 pick up the insects that the jarring has started out. The male and 

 female alternately sit on the eggs, and the young break out of the 

 shell in fourteen or sixteen days. They are at first helpless and 

 deformed, but are most tenderly taken care off by their parents, 

 who, when there is any seeming danger, wail piteously and never 

 leave the nest. For a long time after the young are fully fledged, 

 they are guarded and fed by the parents until perfectly able to find 

 their own food and take care of themselves. The male and fe- 

 male birds are alike in color, except that the female lacks the red 

 on the hind head, and the white below is tinged with brown. The 

 name of Hairy Woodpecker is doubtless bestowed upon this bird 

 on account of the white lateral spot on the back, composed of loose 

 feathers resembling hair. This bird usually utters a loud tremu- 

 lous cry in starting off, and when alighting. When mortally 

 wounded it will hang by the claws, even of a single foot, while a 

 spark of life remains. 



PLATE XIX. 



The Clapper Rail. (Mallus Crepitans?) 



Fig. i. 



The Clapper Rail, designated by different names, such as the 

 Mud Hen, Meadow Clapper, Big Rail, and several others, is a 

 well-known and very numerous species, inhabiting the whole At- 

 lantic coast from Florida to New England, and probably still more 

 northward. Although they chiefly inhabit the salt-marshes, these 

 birds are occasionally found on the swampy shores and tide waters 

 of our large rivers, as well as on the lakes. They, as well as 

 other rails, are birds of passage, arriving on the coasts the latter 

 part of April, and leaving late in September. They have been 

 observed in great numbers at the mouth of the Savannah river, in 

 the months of January and February, and it is therefore very prob- 

 able that some of them winter in the marshes of Georgia and Flor- 

 ida. They are often heard to cry while on their spring migrations, 

 pretty high up in the air, generally a little before day-break. The 

 shores, within the beach, consisting of large extents of flat marsh 

 overgrown with rank and reedy grass or rushes, occasionally over- 

 flowed by the sea, by which they are cut into numberless small 

 islands with narrow inlets, are the favorite breeding-places of the 

 Clapper Rails, which are found there in double the number of all 

 other marsh-birds. 



The arrival of the Clapper Rail is announced by his loud, harsh, 

 and incessant crackling, which bears a strong resemblance to that of 

 the Guinea-fowl. It is generally heard during the night, and is 

 greatest before a storm. Toward the middle of May the Clapper Rails 

 begin to construct their nests and lay their eggs. They drop their 

 first egg in a cavity lined with only a little dry grass, to which is 

 gradually added, as the number of eggs increases, more and more 

 grass, so that by the time the number of eggs reaches the full com- 

 plement, usually nine or ten, the nest has attained a height often or 

 fourteen inchest The reason for building the nest so high is doubt- 

 less to secure them from the rising of the tides. The large rank 

 marsh-grass is skillfully arched over the nest, and knit at the top, in 

 order to conceal the nest from view, and afford shelter against heavy 

 rains ; but instead of concealing the nest, it enables the experi- 

 enced egg-hunter to find it more easily, for he can distinguish the 

 spot when it is at a distance of from thirty to forty yards, although 

 an unpracticed eye would not be able to discern it at all. The eggs 



are of a pale clay color, sprinkled over with numerous small spots 

 or dots of a dark red. They measure fully an inch and a half in 

 length by one inch in breadth, and are obtuse at the small end. 

 The}^ are considered exquisite food, far surpassing the eggs of the 

 domestic hen. The proper time for collecting these eggs is about 

 the beginning of June. The nests are so abundant, and some per- 

 sons are so skilled in finding them, that sometimes from forty to 

 fifty dozen are collected in one day by a single individual. 



The Crows, Minks, and other animals hunt their eggs and de- 

 stroy, not only a great number of them, but many of the birds 

 also. Heaps of bones, feathers, wings, and eggs of the Clap- 

 per Rail are often found near the holes of Minks, by which these 

 animals themselves are in turn detected, driven out, and killed. 



The poor Clapper Rails are subjected to another calamity of a 

 more serious and disastrous nature. It happens sometimes, after 

 the greater part of the eggs are laid, that a violent northeast storm 

 arises, and drives the sea into the bay, overflowing the marshes, 

 and destroying all the nests and eggs. Besides, vast numbers of the 

 birds perish, as the water rushes in suddenly, and the birds being 

 entangled are unable to extricate themselves in time to escape 

 drowning. Hundreds of these birds may be seen at such times 

 floating over the marshes in great distress, a few only escaping to 

 the mainland. On such occasions great numbers may sometimes be 

 seen in a single meadow, bewildered and not trying to conceal 

 themselves ; while the bodies of female birds that perished in their 

 nests are washed to the shore, with scarcely a male among the 

 dead bodies. After such an occurrence the birds go to work again 

 as soon as the water subsides, and in about a fortnight the nests 

 and eggs are about as numerous as they w r ere before the calamity. 

 Instances have occurred when such a disaster happened twice in a 

 breeding-season, and yet the Clapper Rails were not discouraged, 

 but commenced building nests and laying eggs for the third time. 



The young of the Clapper Rails bear a strong resemblance to the 

 young of the Virginia Rails, although they are somewhat larger. 

 They are covered, as well as the young Virginia Rails, with a soft 

 black down, but differ from the latter in having a whitish spot on the 

 auriculars, and a whitish streak along each side of the breast, belly, 

 and fore part of the thigh. The legs are of a blackish slate color. 

 These birds have a little white protuberance near the tip of the bill, 

 and they are also whitish around the nostrils. They run with the 

 greatest facility among the long grass and reeds, and can only be 

 caught with great difficulty. Several 3 r oung Clapper Rails caught 

 in the marshes in New Jersey, about the middle of July, corre- 

 sponded with the above description, the males and females being 

 marked alike. The extreme nervous vigor of its limbs, and its 

 compressed body, which enables it to run among the grass, reeds, 

 and rushes with the greatest rapidity, seemed to be the only means 

 of defense of this bird. Almost everywhere among the salt- 

 marshes are covered passages under the flat and matted grass, 

 through which the Rail makes its way like a rat, without being 

 noticed. From nearly every nest runs one or more of these cov- 

 ered roads to the water's edge, by which the birds can escape un- 

 seen. If closely pursued, the Rail will dive and swim to the other 

 side of the pond or inlet, rising and disappearing with celerity and 

 in silence. In smooth water the Rail swims tolerably well, but 

 not fast ; he sits rather high in the water with the neck erect, strik- 

 ing out with his legs with great rapidity. On shore, he runs with 

 the neck extended, frequently flirting up his erect tail, and running 

 on smooth ground nearly as fast as a man. 



These birds are always very difficult to catch on land even when 

 their wings are broken. They can remain under water four or five 

 minutes, clinging closely to the roots of rushes w r ith the head bent 

 downward. Their flight resembles that of a Duck. They gener- 

 ally fly low above the ground, with the neck extended, and with 

 great velocity ; but like all the Rail tribe they have a dislike to 

 take wing, and whenever you traverse the marshes and accident- 

 ally start one Clapper Rail, you may be sure that there are hun- 

 dreds of these birds, which, if hunted by a dog, will lead him 



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