So shy and scarce is this Rail that few naturalists have seen it. One flew across my blind in Shinnecock Bay and disappeared into the grass. The growth was thin and ground sandy, and altho I went right after it I never caught a glimpse of the bird again. Their call is a series of throaty "clinks" given steadily for fifteen minutes at a time, sometimes all thru a moonlit night.
NEST: a neat substantial structure of reeds and grass, well hidden in grass tufts or under last year's leftover hay windrows.
EGGS: 8–10; varying shades of buff, specked with brown and lilac at large end.
Chiefly United States and Canada to latitude 60 degrees. West to North Dakota; rarely to California.