256 KEY AND DESCRIPTION 



run and hide in its sedgy home, and so, though it is brightly 

 marked, it is rarely seen. 



Length, 16-19; wing, 6J (6-7); tarsus, 2J ; culmen, 25. Eastern 

 United States, in fresh-water marshes ; breeding nortli to Missouri and 

 Connecticut and wintering from Virginia southward. Occasionally north 

 to Wisconsin, Ontario, and Maine. 



2. Clapper Rail (211. Rdllus crepitans). — A large, pale-col- 

 ored, olive-gray, salt-marsh rail with yellowish-brown breast, 

 whitish throat, and more or less white-barred belly and sides. 

 Downy younfj are glossy black. This salt-marsh inhabitant 

 takes the place of the last species of the fresh marshes. In 

 the south it is also found in the mangrove swamps. (Mud 

 Hen.) 



Length, 14-16 ; wing, 5} (5J-6J) ; tail, 2J ; tarsus, 2 ; culmen, 2-2 j. 

 Salt-water marshes of the Eastern and Southern States ; breeding from 

 Connecticut southward and wintering in small numbers over about the 

 same range. Casual north to Massachusetts. The Louisiana Clapper 

 Rail (211". B. c. saturatus) of Louisiana is a darker-colored bird having 

 the back broadly striped with brownish-black and the breast more cinna- 

 mon-colored. 



3. Florida Clapper Rail (211-1. Rdllus scdttii). — This species 

 differs from No. 2 in having the feathers of the back almost 

 black with olive-gray margins, the neck and breast dark cinna- 

 mon-red, and the belly and flanks black. These colors give it 

 much the appearance of the king rail, but it lacks the rufous 

 wing coverts of that bird. 



Length, 14; wing, 5J ; tarsus, IJ; culmen, 2|. Western coast of 

 Florida. 



4. Virginia Rail ('212. Rdllus virghuhnus). — A small, common, 

 brightly colored, short-tailed, long-billed, cinnamon-breasted, 

 brown-backed, distinctly marked rail of both fresh and salt 

 marshes. The sides are somewhat barred with black and 

 white, the wing coverts brownish-red, belly like the breast, 

 and the throat white. The back proper has very dark centers 

 to the feathers. The common morning and evening note of 

 this bird is a grunting sound much like that of a hungry pig. 



