VIRGINIA BAIL 291 



A set of seven half-incubated eggs in the Museum of Vertebrate 

 Zoology was taken by F. Stephens on False Bay, near San Diego, 

 April 10, 1908. The nest was composed of rotting stems of pickle-weed, 

 and was situated on the ground in a thick growth of the same plant 

 at the edge of the salt marsh. The male bird was flushed from the 

 nest. These eggs measure 1.69 to 1.78 inches by 1.22 to 1.26, and 

 average 1.24 by 1.73, being thus decidedly larger than the set described 

 above. Two other sets of seven eggs each were found on the same 

 day (Stephens, MS). Eggs have also been reported as follows: Bal- 

 lona, Los Angeles County, May 16, 1894, set of six slightly incubated 

 eggs (Grinnell, 1898, p. 15) ; Bay City, Orange County, March 19, 

 1910, set of nine fresh eggs (Willett, 1912a, p. 32) ; San Diego, April 

 16, 1895, and April 8 to 10, 1900, sets in Thayer collection (Cooke, 

 1914, p. 18). Three small young (in Mus. Vert. Zool.), in the curious 

 black natal dress, were taken near National City, San Diego County, 

 June 11, 1908 ; these were part of a brood seen swimming just outside 

 the marsh vegetation at the edge of the bay (Stephens, MS). 



Henshaw (1876, p. 273) states that, in 1875, in the vicinity of 

 Santa Barbara, this rail was common, and that by the first of July 

 the young were out and able to accompany their parents in search of 

 food. They began to be active about sunset. 



Willett (1912a^ p. 32) says that at extreme high tides the Clapper 

 Rail swims on, the water after the fashion of Coots, and, as the Rails 

 are at such times easily approached, they are killed in large numbers 

 by the hunters. This pertained, of course, to the time before the. 

 enactment of the Federal law providing a five-year close season. In 

 many of the marshes in southern California where this rail was 

 formerly common, as for instance around Santa Barbara, it has been 

 practically exterminated. Like the California Clapper Rail this south- 

 ern race should be accorded absolute protection until such time as its 

 numbers return to normal, after which shooting might be allowed 

 under conditions of moderation insuring the safety of the species. 



Virginia Rail 



Rallus virginianus Linnaeus 



Other name — Sweetwater Bail. 



Description — Adults, both sexes: Top of head and Kind neck blackish, nar- 

 rowly streaked with olive brown; sides of head uniform lea'd color; patch 

 between base of bill and eye blackish; above this patch a streak of brownish 

 white; chin white, blending into cinnamon of throat and breast; iris "bright 

 red" (Audubon, 1842, V, p. 178); bill dark brown, the lower mandible and 

 edges of upper mandible more yellowish brown; back, scapulars, rump, upper 

 tail coverts, and tail, olive brown, broadly striped with black; outer surface 

 of closed wing chestnut brown; flight feathers dusky brown; axillars dusky 



