532 CLAPPER RAIL. 
mence laying- and building at the same time; the first egg be’ng 
usually dropped in a slight cavity, lined with a little dry grass pulled 
for the purpose, which, as the number of the eggs increase to their 
usual complement, ten, is gradually added to, until it rises to the 
height of twelve inches or more,—- doubtless to secure it. from the 
tising of the tides. Over this the long salt grass is artfully arched, 
and knit at top, to conceal it from the view above; but this very 
circumstance enables the experienced egg-hunter to distinguish the 
spot at a distance of thirty or forty yards, though imperceptible to a 
common eye. The eggs are of a pale clay color, sprinkled with small 
spots of dark red, and measure somewhat more than an inch and a 
half in length, by one inch in breadth, being rather obtuse at the small 
end. These eggs are exquisite eating, far surpassing those of the 
domestic Hen. The height of laying is about the Ist of June, when 
the people of the neighborhood go off to the marshes an egging, as it 
is called. So abundant are the nests of this species, and so dexterous 
some persons at finding them, that one hundred dozen of eggs have 
been collected by one man in a day. At this time, the crows, the 
minx, and the foxes, come in for their share; but, not content with 
the eggs, those last often seize and devour the parents also. The 
bones, feathers, wings, &c., of the poor Mud Hen lie in heaps near 
the hole of the minx; by which circumstance, however, he himself is 
often detected and destroyed. 
These birds are also subject to another calamity of a more exten- 
sive kind: After the greater part of the eggs are laid, there sometimes 
happen violent north-east tempests, that drive a great sea into the bay, 
covering the whole marshes. so that at such times the Rail may be seen 
in hundreds, floating over the marsh in great distress; many escape 
to the main land; and vast numbers perish. On an occasion of this 
kind, I have seen, at one view, thousands in a single meadow, walking 
about exposed and bewildered, while the dead bodies of the females, . 
who had perished on or near their nests, were strewed along the shore. 
This last circumstance proves how strong the ties of maternal affec- 
tion are in these birds; for of the great numbers which I picked up and 
opened, not one male was to be ana among them; all were females! 
Such as had not yet begun to sit probably escaped. These disasters 
‘do not prevent the survivors from recommencing the work of laying. 
and building anew; and instances have occurred where their eggs 
have been twice destroyed by the sea; and yet in two weeks the eggs 
and nests seemed as numerous as ever. 
The young of the Clapper Rail very much resemble those of the 
Virginian Rail, except in being larger.. On the 10th of August, I 
examined one of these young Clapper Rails, caught among the reeds 
in the Delaware, and apparently about three weeks old; it was covered 
with black down, with the exception of a spot of white onthe auricu- 
lars, and a streak of the same along the side of the breast, belly, and 
fore part of the thigh; the legs were of a blackish slate color; and 
the bill was marked with a spot of white near the point, and round the 
nostril. These run with great facility among the grass and reeds, and 
are taken with extreme difficulty. : 
The whole defence of this species seems to be in the nervous vigor 
of its limbs, and thin, compressed form of its body, by which it is 
