CLAPPER RAIL. 
119 
nests, were strewed along the shore. This last circumstance proves 
how strong the ties of maternal affection is in these birds ; for of 
the great numbers which I picked up and opened, not one male 
was to be found among them : all were females ! Such as had not 
yet begun to sit probably escaped. These disasters do not prevent 
the survivors from recommencing the work of laying and building 
anew ; and instances have occurred where their eggs have been 
twice destroyed by the sea ; and yet in two weeks the eggs and 
nests seemed as numerous as ever. 
The young of the Clapper Rail very much resemble those of 
the Virginian Rail, except in being larger. On the tenth of August 
I examined one of these young Clapper Rails, caught among the 
reeds in the Delaware, and apparently about three weeks old ; it 
was covered with black down, with the exception of a spot of 
white on the auriculars, and a streak of the same along the side 
of the breast, belly, and fore part of the thigh ; the legs were 
of a blackish slate color ; and the bill was marked with a spot 
of white near the point, and round the nostril. These run with great 
facility among the grass and reeds, and are taken with extreme 
difficulty. 
The whole defence of this species seems to be in the nervous 
vigour of its limbs, and thin compressed form of its body, by which 
it is enabled to pass between the stalks of grass and reeds with 
great rapidity. There are also every where among the salt marshes 
covered ways under the flat and matted grass, through which the 
Rail makes its way like a rat, without a possibility of being seen. 
There is generally one or more of these from its nest to the water 
edge, by which it may escape unseen ; and sometimes, if closely 
pressed, it will dive to the other side of the pond, gut, or inlet, 
rising and disappearing again with the silence and celerity of 
thought. In smooth water it swims tolerably well, but not fast ; sit- 
ting high in the water, with its neck erect, and striking with great 
rapidity. When on shore, it runs with the neck extended, the tail 
