Clapper Rail or Salt-water Marsh Hen

Clapper Rail or Salt-water Marsh Hen
Rallus crepitans, Gmelin
Octavo edition, plate 310

“Although this species is a constant resident, and extremely abundant along the salt marshes and reedy sea islands of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana, to the mouths of the Mississippi, and probably farther south, at all seasons of the year, it leaves these districts in considerable numbers in spring, and extends its movements along the Atlantic shores as far as the Middle States. Those individuals which leave the south for a season, reach the shores of New Jersey about the middle of April, and return to the southern States about the beginning of October, to spend the winter along with their young . . . Their migrations take place under night, and in perfect silence; but the moment they arrive at their destination, they announce their presence by a continuation of loud cacklings, meant no doubt as an expression of their joy.”

John James Audubon, Birds of America (New York: J.J. Audubon; Philadelphia: J. B. Chevalier, 1840-1844), vol. 5, p. 165-166.

View bird in National Audubon Society Guide to North American Birds.

A specimen of this species collected by Audubon is housed within the collections of the Natural History Museum of London.