BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 



205 



CLAPPER RAIL (Ballus crepitans crepitans). 



Length. — 13.50 to 16 inches. 



Adidt. — Above ashy olive gray striped with olive brown, but not as dis- 

 tinctly as the King Rail; wings and tail brown; crown and nape brown 

 or dusky; a white stripe from bill to above eye; sides of head, neck, 

 breast and flanks ashy olive gray, turning to white on throat and chin 

 and to pale brownish yellow or buffy on breast; flanks darker, barred 

 with white; general tone subdued gray with subdued brown tints; bill 

 long, slender and down curved. 



Field Marks. — Resembles the Virginia Rail and the King Rail in form, but 

 is much larger and grayer or paler than our common Rails; salt-water 

 marshes mainly. 



Notes. — Gkak, gkak, gkak, at first loud and rapid, ending lower and slower 

 (Chapman). 



Nest. — A pile of dead rushes, grasses, etc., in the salt marsh. 



Eggs. — Seven to twelve, about 1.70 by 1.20, buffy or whitish, rather spar- 

 ingly spotted with reddish brown and obscure purplish. 



Range. — Salt marshes of the Atlantic coast. Breeds from Connecticut to 

 North Carolina; winters mainly south of New Jersey; casual north to 

 Maine. 



History. 

 This large Rail is regarded as an accidental visitor to 

 Massachusetts from New York or farther south, where it 

 lives mainly in the salt marshes. Linsley (1848) found it 



