184 WADING BIRDS. 



According to Wilson, these Rails arrive on the coast of New 

 Jersey about the 20th of April, and probably winter within the 

 southern boundaries of the Union, or in the marshes along the 

 extensive coast of the Mexican Gulf, as they are seen by Feb- 

 ruary on the shores of Georgia in great numbers. In the 

 course of their migrations, in the hours of twilight, they are 

 often heard on their way, in the spring, by fishermen and 

 coasters. Their general residence is in salt-marshes, occa- 

 sionally penetrating a short distance up the large rivers as far 

 as the bounds of tide-water. In the vast flat and grassy 

 marshes of New Jersey, intersected by innumerable tide- 

 water ditches, their favorite breeding-resorts, they are far 

 more numerous than all the other marsh-fowl collectively. 



The arrival of the Mud Hen (another of their common 

 appellations) is soon announced through all the marshes by 

 its loud, harsh, and incessant cackle, heard principally in the 

 night, and is most frequent at the approach of a storm. About 

 the middle of May the females commence laying, dropping 

 the first egg into a slight cavity scratched for its reception, 

 and lined with a small portion of dry grass, as may be con- 

 venient. During the progress of laying the complement of 

 about ten eggs, the nest is gradually increased until it attains 

 about the height of a foot, — a precaution or instinct which 

 seems either to contemplate the possibiUty of an access of the 

 tide-water, or to be a precaution to conceal the eggs or young, 

 as the interest in their charge increases. And indeed to con- 

 ceal the whole with more success, the long sedge grass is 

 artfully brought together in an arch or canopy ; but however 

 this art and ingenuity may succeed in ordinary cases, it only 

 serves to expose the nest to the search of the fowler, who can 

 thus distinguish their labors at a considerable distance. The 

 eggs, more than an inch in breadth, and about one and three 

 fourths in length, are of the usual oval figure, of a yellowish 

 white or dull cream color sparingly spotted with brown red 

 and a few other interspersed minute touches of a subdued 

 tint bordering on lilac purple ; as usual, there are very few 

 spots but towards the obtuse end. The eggs are much 



