554: BRITISH BIRDS. 
in the first week of April. It is probable that two broods may occasionally 
be reared, as eggs have been taken as late as July. 
In the fen-countries it is still a common bird. In the middle of May 
three years ago I spent a day or two in the Norfolk broads with my 
friends Mr. Howard Saunders and Mr. Arthur H. Evans. We placed our- 
selves under the guidance of a well-known marshman of the name of 
Joshua. Leaving Hickling Broad we punted down the stream across 
Higham Sounds, and landed on the bank of the river further on, where 
Joshua had marked for us the nest of a Water-Rail. We found ourselves 
in the middle of an ocean of reeds, most of them in a dense mass, just 
covered at the roots with water, but some more thinly sprinkled over 
rougher ground, and almost choked with sedges, rushes, and coarse rank 
vegetation of other kinds. The nest was admirably concealed, and with all 
our care we only caught a momentary glimpse of the bird as she dis- 
appeared. Such a nest can only be found by accident. The perfect 
silence of the bird, the quiet way in which she slips off the nest and 
threads her way amongst the sedge and reeds, and the absolute conceal- 
ment of the nest itself, which cannot be seen until the vegetation which 
hangs over it is pulled aside, make it an almost hopeless task to try and 
find a nest in such extensive reed-beds. The nest was about afoot from the 
ground, but had a solid foundation under it, formed by the roots of the 
clump of rushes in the midst of which it was built. It was carefully made 
of flat sedge and the flat leaves of the reed, lined with dry broken pieces 
of round slender reeds, and contained five eggs. In spite of the difficulty 
of finding the nests of this bird, the indefatigable Joshua had a second nest 
marked for us not very far off, but on the other side of the river. This 
nest was more favourably situated for obtaining a sight of the bird, as the 
clump of tangled reeds and rushes in which it was concealed only covered 
five or six square yards and was surrounded by almost bare swamp. To 
~ secure asight of the bird we each approached the nest from different sides ; 
but, as before, we only caught a momentary glimpse of her as she slunk 
from the nest. We remained standing round the clump for some time, 
during which she was skulking in the herbage. At last we succeeded in 
driving her out, when she attempted to make a run across the naked part 
of the swamp. Saunders was standing a few yards further off than we 
were, and by chance she ran into his arms, or rather into his legs, where- 
upon she instantly took wing and flew right away, with legs hanging down 
as if anxious to alight at the first possible opportunity. Her flight was 
not very quick but very straight ; in fact she would have been an easy 
shot. She dropped into the reeds at about sixty yards distance, not having 
uttered a note during the whole time. The nest was quite as perfectly 
concealed as the former one, and did not differ from it in construction; it 
also contained five eggs. 
