NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 261 



was deeply hollowed ; it measured 8 inches in diameter and the rim was 

 about 8 inches above the water, which was about a foot deep. It 

 contained nine practically fresh eggs. The rail was heard, but not seen. 



T. E. McMuUen tells me that in New Jersey it nests in or near 

 marshes in grass tussocks, sedge tussocks, or water arum, where the 

 nests are built up from 6 to 18 inches above shallow water. 



"William B. Crispin wrote to me in 1913 that it was then a com- 

 mon resident of Salem County, New Jersey-, and that it builds its 

 nest in the tussocks or the thick grasses of a Iresh water marsh or 

 meadow; the nest is lined with a few dry grasses, arched over and 

 well concealed by the green grasses about it. 



Mr. Wayne (1910) says that, in South Carolina, "numerous nests" 

 that he has "found have been invariabl}^ placed in rushes or button- 

 wood bushes, 8 inches to a foot and a half over water." 



Referring to the nesting habits of the king rail in Henry County, 

 Illinois, A. C. Murchison (1895) writes: 



Around the edge of the marsh are a number of large ponds, and on the side 

 of these where the water was not over a foot or so deep, or any place in a shal- 

 low pond and even in the fields, we found the nests. The nests in the ponds 

 were placed in chimps of coarse rushes or cat-tails, and from 3 to 8 inches above 

 the water. Some of the dead rushes were bent down to form a slight platform 

 in the middle of the clump, and on this the nest material of rushes and grass was 

 laid to a thickness of from 1 to 4 inches, hollowed just enough to hold the oggs. 

 The nosts found on the ground were placed in slight hollows scratched by the 

 birds in i\ thick clump of grass and lined with dead grass, forming a close mat 

 from 1 to 3 inches thick. In all cases where the set was complete the rushes 

 were very neatly interwoven to form a canopy that very often led to the detec- 

 tion of the nest. I think the grass canopy is usually the sign of a full set, as it. 

 is not often found over a small number of fresh eggs. 



Egrjs. — The kin'^ rail lays from 6 to 15 eggs, from 8 to 11 being 

 the commonest numl)ers. They are ovate in shape and the shell is 

 smooth and slightly glossy. The groimd color averages lighter than 

 in eggs of the clapper rails, but not so light as in those of the Cali- 

 fornia species; it is pale buff, varying from "cream buff" to "pale 

 olive buff." They are sparingly and irregularly spotted, mostly in 

 small spots, with various shades of "vinucoous drab," "army brown" 

 and "vinaceous brown" and sometimes with a few spots of brighter 

 browns. The measurements of 56 eggs averaged 41 ])y 80 millime- 

 ters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 44 by 33. 38.5 by 

 28 millimeters. 



Young. — The period of incubation does not seem to be known. 

 The hatching process is well described by W. F. IIenninger(1910) as 

 follows : 



A fourth nest contained two eggs and one young and while looking at the 

 third egg I noticed a small hole and soon had the chance to see a young rail 

 chick's bill pecking away at its inclosure. The chick kept up a constant peck- 



