THE VIRGINIA RAIL. 607 
taneously he cocks his tail forward and relaxes it nervously. If you succeed 
in looking sufficiently disinterested, he will snatch a slug hastily and watch you 
furtively with a blood-red eye, to note whether you approve of such actions. 
If you pass all the tests of good behavior during the first five minutes, the 
gentle bird will relax his vigilance and show you how he can wall: over half- 
submerged vegetation without sinking very deep himself, or if in the passage 
from bog to bog he comes to a space of clear brown water, he will swim as 
lightly as a duck, but with that odd bobbing motion peculiar to his race. A 
single false motion, however, will send him scuttling off thru the plant-stems 
and out of sight in a twinkling, cackling in alarm and dudgeon. 
3ut splash you around never so bravely in hip-boots, or wait you never so 
patiently, the feeling grows upon you that you are an outsider, so far as the 
more intimate interests of the swamp are concerned. There is much trafficking 
in the sedges, which is not meant for human eyes, and the revealing of the life 
of any Rail is much like the natural history of a shooting star,—one flash, one 
history. But the shy birds are brave in voice. As the male Rail wanders 
about uneasily in early April searching for a mate he cries, “Keg, keggy, keggy, 
: 
keggy,’ in tones which convey an impression of a much larger and fercer 
bird. The anxiety of a female for 
her young is betrayed by a mourn- 
ful ki-i, or by short phrases of 
creaking notes. If the young are 
in hiding, a low cluck of reassur- 
ance will bring them scurrying to 
find their mother. 
A hummock of grass in a fresh- 
water marsh is always selected as a 
nesting place. In this the bird 
scratches a considerable depression, 
which she lines carefully with dried 
grasses. The bird is a close sitter, 
but flies when flushed, where you 
would expect her to have better 
success in sneaking. If the eggs 
are handled in her absence, the 
owner is likely to destroy them up- 
on her return; and Mr. Bowles has 
a set which he rescued nearly in 
time, with only one of its eggs 
pierced clear thru by a thrust of the 
bird’s long beak. 
The eggs, averaging fewer in NEST AND EGGS OF VIRGINIA RAIL, 
Taken in Tacoma. Photo by the Authors 
