G ^Ii". W. Brewster on tlie 



aud finally the female went to the uest and resumed incuba- 

 tion. I crept cautiously to within three feet of her, and 

 looked at her for a few moments, then retreating to a proper 

 distance, shot her on the nest. I afterwards secured the 

 male also, but not easily, for he was unusually shy. This 

 nest, like the first, was built in a cane over a pool of stag- 

 nant water, but it was i^laced higher, at least six feet above 

 the water. It contained one young bird just hatched and 

 two eggs, addled, but in every w^ay perfect.'' 



These eggs, with the nest in which they were found, have 

 been very kindly sent me by Mr. Wayne for examination 

 and description. The nest is a remarkable affair, composed 

 mainly of leaves — chiefly of the red maple {Acer rubrum), 

 sweet gum {Liquidamhar styraciflua), water-oak {Quercus 

 aquatica) , Sind. cane {Arundinaria tectd) — bleached by the sun 

 and winds or stained by long immersion in swamp- water, 

 and loosely impacted in a large and nearly globular mass, 

 one side of which rests between^ but is in no way fastened 

 to, the upright stem and nearly upright, slightly diverging, 

 fascicled branches of a cane, the bottom of the structure being 

 about four inches above the point of junction of the main 

 stem and its fascicle. As only a little more than one third 

 of the circumference of the nest is enclosed by these supports, 

 it is probable that they were forced slightly outward during 

 the process of building, for otherwise they could scarcely 

 clasp this small portion with sufficient firmness to sustain the 

 weight of the whole. The sides of the mass round inward 

 at the top, which, however, is round and flat, as if a perfect 

 globe had been first formed and the top afterwards sliced off. 

 Near the inner edge of this flat surface is the nest proper, a 

 deep, neatly rounded, cup-shaped hollow, smoothly and very 

 prettily lined with needles of the short-leaved pine {Pinus 

 mitis) and a few fine black roots, which curiously resemble 

 horse-hairs. The inner walls of this cavity next the support- 

 ing canes are only about half an inch in thickness, but its 

 outer rim is bordered by a platform from one and a half 

 to two inches in width. Many of the leaves on the outer 

 edge of this platform arc Hxed with their stems pointing ob- 



