234 ' Tue Birps Azsour Us. 
course there are well-marked specific differences, but 
the resemblances are very strong, and in their habits 
the birds seem to vary only as their respective locali- 
ties render necessary. 
The rank growth of rush-like grass upon the low- 
lying flats near the sea-coast affords a moderately 
secure home for the clapper-rail from April until 
cold weather drives them southward. They do not 
go much north of New Jersey, but there they are 
really very abundant, although the number is de- 
creasing in consequence of the reckless destruction 
of their nests, thousands of eggs being gathered. 
These birds announce their coming by a quaint 
cackle that, when uttered by hundreds at once, as 
sometimes happens, sounds like the spring-tide rat- 
tling of innumerable frogs. 
The King-rail is a rarer bird, found only in fresh- 
water marshes, and is found in pairs or singly, 
rather than in colonies; yet it sometimes happens 
that more than one pair will occupy a very limited 
bit of marsh. In a marshy tract of about three acres 
in extent I have yearly, for just twenty years, found 
a pair of king-rails, and usually find their nest. Un- 
like the salt-water birds, they do not cackle continu- 
ously, but when excited utter a ek-kek-kek that tells 
you the bird is near, but you cannot accurately locate 
the sound. It varies from a high key to a low one 
so rapidly that you get the impression there are a 
number of birds immediately about you. 
They are hard to flush, preferring to run rather 
than take wing. They nest in the tall grasses, and the 
young leave the nest and run through the grass when 
