104 WATER BIRDS 



if it were not for their notes, the reeds and grasses 

 would long keep the secret of their presence. . . . They 

 will greet you late in the afternoon with a clear whistled 

 keewee which soon comes from dozens of invisible birds 

 about you, and long after night has fallen it continues 

 like a spring-time chorus of piping hylas. Now and 

 again it is interrupted by a high-voiced rolling whinny 

 which, like a call of alarm, is taken up and repeated by 

 different birds all over the marsh. They seem so ab- 

 sorbed in their musical devotions even when calling con- 

 tinuously, it requires endless patience and keen eyes to 

 see the dull-colored, motionless forms in places where 

 one would not suppose there was sufficient growth to 

 conceal them." 



216.1. CALIFORNIA BLACK RAIL. — Creciscus 



jamaicensis coturniculus. 



Family : The Rails, Gallinules, and Coots. 



Length: 5.00-6.00. 



Adults : Crown blackish slate ; upper parts dark red-brown, speckled 

 with white ; under parts, neck, and sides of head slate-color ; belly- 

 sooty brown. 



Dovmy Young : Uniform black. 



Geographical Distribution: Coast region of California ; probably south to 

 Lower California. 



Breeding Bange : For the Pacific slope, Oregon and California ; east of 

 the Eockies, through the United States. 



Breeding Season : June. 



Nest : Of grasses ; on ground ; in wet meadows or marshes. 



Eggs : 7 to 10 ; white, thinly spotted with cinnamon. Size 1.05 X 0.80. 



Most of us are quite willing to agree with the man 

 who said that this bird is " about as difficult to observe 

 as a field mouse." It is its shyness and small size that 

 render it so little known to local ornithologists, who con- 

 tent themselves with pronouncing it rare. Its nest is a 



