The chance explorer is about as likely as is the plodding student to come 

 across a nest built up in the reeds and grasses, either well up in a grass-tussock 

 or just sufficiently elevated to keep a hatful of eggs clear of the water. The 

 eggs, ten or a dozen in number, are like nothing else in the swamp, except 

 those of the Florida Gallinule. From these there is no certain distinction. 

 I have noticed, however, that the reddish brown spotting of the latter is 

 apt to be less angular and the spots more numerous and regular. The nest of 

 the Rail does not boast the inclined approach which characterizes that of the 

 Gallinule or the Coot. 



The food of the Marsh Hen consists of insects, slugs, leeches, tadpoles 

 and small crayfish, besides a goodly proportion of seeds from aquatic and palustral 

 plants. The last are obtained not only from the soft bed of ooze upon which 

 they may have fallen, but from the seed-pods themselves, since the bird can 

 climb quite nimbly. Like all birds of this class, the most active hours are spent 

 just after sunset and before sunrise. But in a region where they were in little 

 fear of molestation I have sen them deploy upon an extensive mud-flat in 

 broad daylight and go prodding about in company with migrant Sandpipers 

 for the worms which riddle the ooze with their burrows. At such times, too, 

 I have seen a few standing stock still for a quarter of an hour at a stretch, 

 evidently to catch a wink of sleep along with their sun bath, and trusting, perhaps, 

 to their more vigilant neighbors to give warning of approaching danger. 



The King Rail has not been much observed in our state, and although not 

 to be accounted rare, is doubtless much more frequent in the prairie states to 

 the west and northwest of us, where swales and "slews" abound. It has been 

 reported breeding in the neighborhood of Circleville, but is more conunonly 

 found in the extensive marshes which vary the Lake Erie shore. Its pres- 

 ence may be detected by its weird call, which is best described in the words 

 of Mr. Frank Chapman, "a loud startling bnp, bup, blip, hup, blip, uttered 

 with increasing rapidity until the syllables are barely distinguishable, then ending 

 somewhat as it begins — the whole performance lasting about five seconds." 



467 



