
Harve st 
Since early nesting attempts were much more successful in 
1956 than the previous year, it was assumed that more young 
birds would be on the wing during the early part of the hunting 
Season. Consequently, it was expected that hunters would fare 
well at that time. Nevertheless, the results on opening day did 
not live up to expectations; many hunters complained about the 
scarcity of birds. Later in the season, during the abnormally 
high tides of hurricane "Flossie", numerous birds and limit kills 
were reported. “vidently, the high tides prior to the season and 
especially the dense cover, was responsible for the poor early 
season results. 
With such a variation of opinions of many hunters and person- 
nel on the clanper rail harvest, there is a definite need for a 
method for proper evaluation. In view of this, an effort was made 
to obtain field data by conducting hunter bag checks. Even though 
the sample is too small, it does give some indication on how hunt- 
ers fared on a few different areas. Table 2 shows that the best 
results were obtained on the Palermo, Seaville, Ccean City, and 
Hlarmora marshes. It is difficult to ascertain just what consti- 
tutes a good harvest. Taking into consideration the number of in- 
experienced rail hunters that were afield, the annual number of 
birds per hunter day appears to be a good kill. Hunter utiliza- 
tion and success on Egg Island and Heislerville marshes were poor 
and were probably attributable to the dense cover rather than a 
scarcity of birds. 
Table 2, Hunter Bag Check of Clapper Rail During the 1956 Season 
Area No. Hunters No. Rails No. Rails per Hunter 
Tuckerton 37 109 209 
Avalon 9 29 Sad 
Seaville-Palermo 21 ; 90 4.3 
Egg Island 8 : 1 oa 
Heislerville 2 1 25 
Ocean City-Marmora 3 12 * ole 
Totals ~ 80 2))2 3.0 
63 
