Some Hermits of the Marsh 



and having less spread of wing, it appears 

 considerably smaller when in flight. 



The mud-hen is a cousin of the rail, and 

 the habits and general appearance of the 

 two birds are much alike, though the mud- 

 hen is four or five times the larger. The 

 mud-hen, with its bluish-black plumage and 

 thick-set head and neck, reminds one of the 

 common crow, except that its posterior 

 anatomy is that of a wader. It is about the 

 size of a crow, and has a croaking note that 

 is not unlike a suppressed caw. Often, 

 when I have been rowing or paddling on 

 some sluggish stream that winds through 

 the marshes, I have seen the black, shadowy 

 figure of the mud-hen appear and disappear 

 around some grass-grown tussock on the 

 border of the stream. It is a remarkably 

 shy bird, and a very swift runner. My dog 

 has sometimes spied one of them in the 

 marsh, swum ashore, and taken up its trail 

 with puppyish eagerness, only to be outrun 

 and easily evaded by the nimble mud-hen, 

 so securely at home in the winding, watery 

 avenues of its natural Venice. 



The Wilson's snipe, or English snipe, is 

 another mysterious hermit of the marsh. 



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