CLAPPER RAIL. 
183 
with the short tail erect and frequently jerked. It is never 
seen to perch on trees or shrubs, and is most of the time 
on its feet. Its flesh is scarcely inferior to that of the Com- 
mon Rail, but its scarcity and diminutive size relieve it from 
much attention as game. Late in autumn, a little time previ- 
ous to their departure, these birds occasionally wander out 
into the neighboring salt-marshes, situated at a distance from 
the sea, — a route by which in all probability they proceed in 
a solitary and desultory manner towards the milder regions of 
the South. At this time also they often roost among the reeds, 
by ponds, in company with the different kinds of Blackbirds, 
clinging, no doubt, to the fallen stalks on which they pass the 
night over the water. They swim and dive also with ease and 
elegance; but like their whole tribe of Long-Footed Birds, 
they are swiftest on land, and when pushed depend upon their 
celerity over the covered marsh as a final resort. 
This Rail is a common summer visitor to the Maritime Provinces, 
but rarely ranges north of the fiftieth parallel. Westward its range 
is bounded only by the Pacific. 
CLAPPER RAIL. 
SALT-WATER MEADOW HEN. MUD HEN. BIG RAIL. 
RaI.LUS LONGIROSTRIS CREPITANS. 
Char. Above, ashy gray striped with brown and tinged with Oliver 
wings and tail brown ; below, pale buff, flanks darker and barred with 
white ; breast shaded with ash ; throat white. General coloration gray 
without rufous tint. Kill long, slender, and decurved. Length 13)^ to 
15M inches. 
Nest. Artfully concealed amid the rank grass of a salt-marsh, — a 
loosely arranged cushion of dry rushes and grass. 
Egi^s. 6-13 (usually about 9) ; pale buff, marked with reddish brown 
and lavender; size extremely variable, average about 1.70 X 1.20. 
The Clapper Rail is a numerous and well-known species in 
all the Middle and Southern States, but is unknotvn in this 
part of New England, or in any direction farther to the north, 
being unnoticed by Richardson in his “ Northern Zoology.” 
