FAMILY XXL 
MACRODACTYZT, Illiger. 
GENUS JAY. — IiALLUS, Linnaeus. 
SUBGENUS I. — JtALLUSf lEUGER. 
256. SALLUS CnEPITANS, LINNiEUS AND WILSON. 
CLAPPER RAIL. 
WILSON, PLATE LXII. EIG. II. 
. This is a verv numerous and well knon'ii species, 
our wdiole Atlantic coast from New England 
^ ^''loricla. It is designated by diHereiit names, such 
tile mud hen, clapper rail, moadoiv clapiier, big rail. 
Though oceasioiiully found along the swampy 
"Ores and tide n aters of our largo rivers, its principal 
• • .1 -la. — T* .. r.r I.nocotco 
arrivi 
g , -'le is in the salt marshes. It is a bird of passage, 
'“'lying on the coast of New Jersey about the 20th ot 
.ir‘''i') and retiring again late iii Sejitemher. I suspect 
'“t many of them winter in the marshes of Georgia 
“'at 
oi tiieiu iviinci m .. 
Florida, having heard them very numerous at the 
^““Ufli of Savannah river in the month of February. 
Rasters and lishcrmen often hear them n hile on their 
.migrations, in spring, generally a little before day- 
“i-eak. The shores of New Jersey, within the beach, 
insisting of an immense extent of Hat marsh, covered 
1 'o* a coarse reedy grass, and occasionally overflowed 
j’-j tile sea, by evhicirit is also cut up into iimumorahle 
^ands by narrow inlets, seem to he the favourite 
feeding place for these birds, as they are there 
ekiiowlcdged to be more than double in number to 
other marsh fowl. , 
t he clapper rail, oi-, as it is generally called, tUc 
Ud hen, soon announces its arrival in the salt marshes, 
y Its lond, harsh and incessant caidvling, which vcrj 
Uch resembles that of a Guinea fowl. This noise is 
Ost general during the night, and is said to he always 
