The California Clapper Rail 



No. 302 



California Clapper Rail 



A. O. U. No. 210. Kail us obsoletus Ridgway. 



Synonyms. — Salt-water Marsh-hen. Mud-hen. 



Description. — Adult: Above olive-gray or grayish olive, feathers of back, 

 scapulars, etc., varied by exposed blackish centers of feathers; forehead and fore-crown 

 interspersed with numerous black denuded shafts; a pale tawny or whitish supraloral 

 stripe; chin and throat whitish or palest tawny; fore-neck and breast, broadly, uniform 

 deep cinnamon; lining of wings, axillars, sides and flanks (broadly, sometimes meeting 

 across the middle of belly), and crissum, brownish dusky, coarsely and narrowly barred 

 with white; middle of belly pale tawny; lateral under tail-coverts pure white. Bill and 

 feet (drying) horn-color. Downy young: Uniform glossy black. Length (av. of 10 

 San Francisco Bay bird-skins): 368.5 (14.49); wing 163. 1 (6.42); bill 60.3 (2.37); tarsus 

 54-7 (2.15)- 



Recognition Marks. — Small crow size; olive-gray above, reddish below; marsh 

 skulking habits. 



Nesting. — Nest: In salt marsh near tide-gut; a more or less bulky crater of 

 broken grass-stems or dead stalks of salicornia; usually concealed by overshadowing 

 vegetation. Eggs: 7 to 1 1 (12 of record); creamy white to pale buffy (ivory-yellow 

 and cartridge-buff), spotted, boldly and sparingly, with chocolate and dark vinaceous 

 gray. Av. of 25 eggs in the M. C. O. Coll.: 42.2 x 30.8 (1.66 x 1.21); index 71.7. 

 Season: c. April 10th (March-June); one brood. 



General Range. — Resident on salt marshes tributary to Monterey and San 

 Francisco bays. Casually observed north to Humboldt Bay and possibly Gray's 

 Harbor, Washington. 



Distribution in California. — Resident in the salt marshes of the southern arm 

 of San Francisco Bay and in the vicinity of Elkhorn, Monterey County. Formerly 

 occurred on the north side of San Francisco Bay, and has been recorded from Tomales 

 Bay and Humboldt Bay. Accidental on the Farallons. 



Authorities. — Newberry {Rallus elegans), Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. vi., 1857, 

 p. 96 (San Francisco and Petaluma); Ridgway, Am. Nat., vol. viii., 1871, p. 111 (orig. 

 desc. of Rallus elegans, var. obsoletus: type locality, San Francisco); W. E. Bryant, Bull. 

 Nutt. Orn. Club, vol. v., 1880, p. 124 (habits, desc. eggs, etc.); Cooke, U. S. Dept. 

 Agric, Bull. no. 128, 1914, p. 18, map (distribution) ; Grinnell, Bryant and Storer, Game 

 Birds Calif., 1918, p. 283 (desc, occurrence, habits, etc.). 



SAN FRANCISCO is a comparatively clean city, as cities go; but San 

 Francisco Bay mud is the deepest and the blackest and the stickiest — in 

 short, the muddiest that ever vexed a poor birdman wanting to get from 

 here to yonder across a half-filled tide-gut. The distance across may not 

 be over a dozen feet — just a little long for jumping, with an uncertain foot- 

 hold on either bank. What's to do? It is miles around this absurd little 

 artery of the salt marshes. Shall we try wading? Only once! And never 

 again! The mud is unfathomable; and the scuttling crabs, who say it is 



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