228 FEATHERED GAME 
form and habits much like the familiar Virginia 
rail, and similarly marked, though its general 
coloration is grayish or yellowish-brown. Its 
plumage with its blending colors lacks the 
bright tones of reds and browns sharply con- 
trasted with the blacks as they appear in the 
Virginia. 
In the breeding season these birds are very 
noisy and keep up a continual clatter, whence 
their name. A dweller in the marshes, mainly 
those of the seacoast, he is found all along the 
Atlantic seaboard of the United States, as far 
north as New England during the breeding sea- 
son, and spending the winter months in the 
Southern States and even farther toward the 
tropics. This species is far more abundant in 
its southern range than elsewhere. 
Their nesting habits are much as in the other 
species; a little above the high tide level a sort 
of platform of reeds and dry grasses matted to- 
gether just out of the water constitutes the nest. 
This contains anywhere from six to ten eggs, 
in color creamy white, freckled with red-brown 
spots. 
The adult bird is of brownish-olive hue above, 
with dusky streaks through the centres of the 
