Mud Hen
Related Category: Vertebrate Zoology
see rail.
More on Mud Hen
Rail - common name for some members of the large family Rallidae, marsh birds that include the gallinule and the coot, two specialized rails.
These birds require a great deal of effort to become airborne, pedaling across the water with their feet before lifting off. The way in which their heads bob when they walk or swim has earned them the name "marsh hen"or "mud hen".
OTHER NAMES: mud hen, water hen, marsh hen, moor-head, water chicken, pull-doo, “poule d’eau.' ...
Clapper Rails, also known as Marsh Hens and Mud Hens, are more often heard than seen. They inhabit coastal marshes and mangroves. They nest in clumps of grasses or other vegetation sometimes building ramps.
In all other parts of the Union, it is known by the names of Mud Hen and Coot. The appellation of "Flusterers" given to it by Mr. LAWSON in his History of South Carolina, never came to my ear, during my visits to that State.
Coots are locally known by the name "mud hen." They are killed for food by pot-hunters in parts of their range, but their slow and laboured take-off makes them of little appeal to the skilled marksman.
Even though the American Coot swims like a duck, they do not have webbed feet, the toes have lobes on the sides of each segment.
They are nicknamed "marsh hen" or "mud hen" because of they way their heads bob when they walk or swim.
 See also: Coot, American Coot, Gallinule, Snail, Purple
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