Identifier: birdlifeguid00chap (find matches)
Title: Bird-life; a guide to the study of our common birds
Year: 1898 (1890s)
Authors: Chapman, Frank M. (Frank Michler), 1864-1945 Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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ail, Clapper Sail which is more common, and the Clap- Raiius crepitans. per Rail or Marsh Hen, an abundant Plate vm. species in some of the salt marshes along our coasts from Long Island southward. It is anoisy bird with a peculiar cackling call which it uttersin a way that suggests the sound produced by some auto-matic toys. Its nest is made of dried grasses, the surroundingmarsh grass being slightly arched over it. Eight totwelve buffy, speckled eggs are laid, a number which,in connection with the abundance of the bird, has led to the persistent robbing of its nests by men who sell theeggs for food. As a result of this practice the birdshave greatly decreased in numbers during recent years. The Coot, Mud-hen, or Crow-duck differs from theRails in having lobed toes (see Fig. 12) and in -being American Coot, more aquatic- In fact> it is more likeFuiica americana. a Duck in habits than like a Rail, butPlate vm. jts p0inted, white-tipped bill will pre- vent its being mistaken for one.
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Plate XXX. Page 122. KINGBIED. Length, 8-50 inches. Upper parts grayish black ; tip of tail and underparts white ; an orange-red crown-patch. Young, similar, but withoutorange-red in crown.. WOODCOCK. - 95 It rarely breeds on the Atlantic coast, but is some-times common on our marsh-bordered streams in thefall. SHORE BIRDS. (ORDER LIMICOLiE.) Snipes and Sandpipers. (Family Scolopacid^e.) The successful pursuit of shore birds on our coastsrequires a special knowledge of their notes and habits.Thirty of the one hundred known species visit us annu-ally, but of this number only two or three nest, most ofthe others migrating in May to their breeding grounds inthe far North. The return migration takes place duringJuly, August, and September, but with some exceptionsthese birds are seen only by those who hunt them sys-tematically with decoys. Only these exceptions and our summer resident specieswill be mentioned here. Commonest among the latter Woodcock *s tne Woodcock, a bird so unlike othe

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