100 WATER BIRDS 



skulk or dive rather than fly, and refuse to desert the 

 nest. About the middle of April they commence to 

 make a nest of marsh grass on a tussock, and from that 

 time on are devoted to it. Eight or nine eggs are laid, 

 and incubation lasts nineteen to twenty-three days. The 

 young Rails run about within an hour after hatching, and 

 look much like tiny black chickens with overgrown legs 

 and bills. If discovered on a mud flat, they crouch 

 motionless like so many small black lumps of dirt or 

 stones, and though one may know where to search, it is 

 hard to find them. The immature rails are as stupid 

 as the adults, and will often allow themselves to be 

 picked up without trying to get away. Their food con- 

 sists largely of the larvse of marsh insects which they 

 pick up in the sliallow water and along shore, und 

 mature insects of all sorts, as well as small crustaceans. 

 As is well known, certain varieties of marsli birds build 

 several nests, using but one. The " dummy " sometimes 

 serves as a slielter for the adult male ; sometimes the 

 making of it seems to have been a mere pastime ; and, 

 occasionally, as in the case of the clapper rail, it forms a 

 convenient platform or nursery on which the young can 

 scramble for a sun-bath when weary with their first 

 swimming lessons. These unused nests are commonly 

 placed close to the one occupied by the brood and closely 

 resemble it. My own observations in this matter, made 

 at Alviso, tally with those of Mr. Adams at San Fran- 

 cisco Bay and ^Ir. Shields at Los Angeles. 



