NORTH AMERICAN RAILS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



19 



CLAPPER RAIL. Ballus crepitans crepitans Gmelin. 



Range. — The clapper rail and its various subspecies inhabit salt- 

 water marshes of the eastern United States from New England to 

 Texas, and the Bahama Islands. 



The species has been separated into five subspecific forms, the 

 most northern of which, crepitans, the type, breeds from New 

 Haven, Conn. (Bishop), south along the coast to Cobb Island, Va. 

 (Fisher), though it is not common north of New Jersey. So 

 abundant were these rails formerly on this coast that in September, 

 1896, near Atlantic City, about 10,000 were killed in two days. The 

 species occurred once inland to Washington, D. C, September 18, 



Fig. 7.— California clapper rail (Rallus obsoletus). 



1882 (Coues) ; and has been noted at East Orleans, Mass., November 

 30, 1895 (Brewster); Plum Island, Mass., September 15, 1908 (Whar- 

 ton) ; Boston Harbor, Mass., May 4, 1875 (Purdie); Kingston, Mass., 

 December 29, 1885 (Browne); Sabattus Pond, Me., 1874 (Smith); 

 and Popham Beach, Me., October 12, 1900 (Knight). 



A few remain in winter as far north as Five Mile Beach, N. J. 

 (Laurent), and occasionally on Long Island, N. Y. (Lawrence). 

 They are abundant in winter on the coast of North Carolina, common 

 in South Carolina, and range south to St. Marys, Ga. (Oberholser). 



