51 



With this bird I have become well acquainted at Pea 

 Island on the coast of North Carolina. Pamlico Sound is 

 separated from the Atlantic by a belt of drifting sand and 

 mud-flats, that broadens in places sufficiently to support trees 

 and bushes, and narrows in others to but the ocean beach 

 backed by a mile of sandy flats, where may frequently be 

 seen in position the stumps of trees that grew there in past 

 centuries. The sound side of this belt is bordered here and 

 there by meadows of salt marsh, some of these quite similar 

 to the wetter marshes of the New^ England coast, and covered 

 like them with a coarse grass or sedge, while others are densely 

 grown with rushes evidently closely related to those that com- 

 pose the salt marshes of western Florida. These marshes are 

 the home of Wayne's Rail, and at evening or in cloudy weather 

 you will hear their harsh cackle, and occasionally see one of 

 the birds walking along the margin of an inlet, ready to run 

 quickly to the grass at the slightest sign of danger. In win- 

 ter apparently the great majority go fartlier south, the true 

 Clapper Pail occurring at this season in about equal numbers ; 

 but hi May the marshes are filled with these birds, and the 

 Clapper Rail is rare. 



At all times Wayne's Rail is a shy and secretive bird, never 

 flying if it can help it, but an adept at running, dodging and 

 hiding, and can seldom be forced from the grass without the 

 aid of a dog. On the island just described are a pair of 

 Chesapeake Bay dogs, one of which from long practice is an 

 expert at catching rail. Keeping to leeward of a marsh until 

 he scents a rail, " Jack " will trail it through the more open 

 grass until it takes refuge in a clump of rushes. Then he 

 runs rapidly through this patch, back and forth, tr3^mg to 

 catch the bird or force it to flight, and, failing in this, will 

 jump several times a couple of feet into the air, hoping to 

 frighten it into leaving its hiding place. Sooner or later the 

 rail wiU be flushed or driven to the windward side of the 

 marsh and attempt to seek safety by flight. Against the 



