226 FEATHERED GAME 
England than is the clapper rail. There are 
perhaps half a dozen authentic records of its 
capture in the State of Maine during a period of 
eighteen years, one of these falling to the 
writer’s credit on the 19th of September, 1895. 
So far as is known but three other specimens 
have been taken, two of these from the Dyke 
Marsh in Falmouth, (from which place came 
my Own specimen) since the record of the first 
specimen, taken on Scarborough Marsh, Octo- 
ber 8, 1881, by Mr. A. G. Rogers. I have never 
known of the capture of a clapper rail in the 
same neighborhood or anywhere near, although 
our marshes are all of the sea and the clapper 
rail is supposed to prefer such places to the 
swamps of the fresh water; moreover, the clap- 
per is said to be a more common species than 
the King Rail in all parts of the Atlantic coast 
line. In the southern part of New England the 
King Rail is more common than with us. 
This bird is almost an exact counterpart of 
the Virginia Rail, so familiar to all marsh gun- 
ners, but made up into a larger package. His 
length varies from seventeen to nineteen inches; 
extent from twenty-three to twenty-five inches. 
As may be seen this is the largest of our rails 
