BIRDS OF LAYSAN AND THE LEEWARD ISLANDS. 
801 
Scarcely a thing escapes their notice. The smallest spider or beetle is snapped up with as much 
avidity as a more conspicuous seed. We caught all our specimens with an ordinary dip net. Usually 
it was merely necessary to place the net on the ground edgewise, when presently a rail would make its 
appearance and proceed to examine the new phenomenon at close range. Sometimes they would fairly 
walk into the net. 
In strolling through the brush we could hear them calling on all sides. Their “ song ” is a 
plaintive, high-keyed little rattle, which resembles remotely an alarm clock with a muffled bell or 
pebbles ricocheting on a glass roof . a I have seen them standing under bushes in the shade rattling 
away in this manner with swollen throats and bills slightly opened. I once saw two approach each 
other with feathers erect, and when close together begin rattling in each other’s face. Then they 
suddenly ceased and slunk away in opposite directions. At the house the little rails walked about the 
piazza in search of food, with far less fear than the chickens, and while Mr. Snyder and I were pre- 
paring specimens it was no uncommon event to have a rail under our chairs in unobtrusive search for 
fallen bits of meat. They took no notice of the shearwaters and albatrosses. I observed two in a 
lively serpentine chase about a young albatross’s legs, the big creature appearing like an uncouth 
mammoth above the trim little rails. 
They do not seem to exhibit any desire to fly, probably having learned from experience that their 
wings are no longer to be relied upon. I have only seen them spread their wings when hopping up 
to a perch or when running fast, and then they made no attempt to rise off the ground. Their food 
consists of small insects, seeds, green material, and eggs. Their beaks are weak, and I doubt if they 
can break any seabirds’ eggs, except the thinner shelled ones of the terns. I did not myself see the 
rail actually puncture an egg, but in the “Avifauna of Laysan,” the following note from Henry 
Palmer’s diary is of interest. “ While out this morning both my assistant and I saw a little rail break 
and eat an egg. We had disturbed from its nest a noddy ( Anous ) . Immediately the rail ran up and 
began to strike at the egg shell with its bill, but the egg being large and hard he was quite a longtime 
before making a hole. The rail would jump high into the air, and come down with all its force on 
the egg, until it accomplished the task, which once done the egg was soon emptied. By this time the 
tern came back and gave chase, but in vain.” (Pt. 1, p. x.) 
Mr. Snyder soon found that he had only to break a tern’s egg and place it in the open, when a 
rail would appear and begin to eat it. In this way it was not difficult to secure good photographs. 
Porzanulas lurk about the outskirts of tern settlements all the time, and I had once to frighten one 
from a tropic bird’s nest while attempting to photograph the egg. I also saw a rail ruffle its feathers 
and rush at three telespizas, driving them from a Sterna egg on which they were feeding. The rail then 
set to and finished the repast, dragging the embryo about in a vain attempt to swallow it. With such 
habits, it is difficult to see how these creatures can ever seriously be at a loss to find food. ( Fig. 45. ) 
We found the rails’ nests in two different situations, which, however, were fundamentally alike. 
Among the tangled and matted juncus, not far from the lagoon, the nests were very abundant. One 
had only to walk along and watch where the rails ran out from between the stems, when the nest 
could be easily found. It is placed on the ground at the end of a tunnel or runway, about 5 or 6 
inches long, hollowed out of dried juncus leaves, and is a roundish cavity lined above and on all sides, 
except the little entrance way, with soft dried stems. The eggs are deposited in a little bowl-shaped 
hollow, about fourOnches in diameter. We found several sets of threes and a few of twos. The eggs 
are large in proportion to the bird, a typical specimen measuring 31 by 21 mm. They do not vary more 
than a millimeter from this size. Occasionally one is slightly longer and wider. In contour they are 
bluntly ovate or elliptical ovate. (Figs. 46, 52.) 
The ground color is a pale olive buff, closely spotted with pale clay color or raw sienna, and faint 
lilac gray. The maculations are distributed fairly evenly over the egg, but in some specimens seem 
more crowded at the broader end. The clay color is brightest and seems to predominate. The speci- 
mens vary in the relative closeness and size of the spottings, the flecks being larger and more scattered 
in a few examples. None of our specimens present the creamy buff ground-color mentioned by Roths- 
child, or figured in his ‘ ‘ Avifauna of Laysan. ’ ’ Ours are distinctly greenish: One egg in the collection 
instead of being smooth is decidedly rough all over, and the spots are crowded to the larger end, being 
made indistinct by a final layer of lime. 
a The latter comparison is made by Mr. Frowhawk, Annals and Mag:. Nat. Hist., ix, p. 248. 
