THE "QUEEN" RAIL 



After remaining quietly around her until convinced that she 

 was not frightened, I worked my way to the bank and carried 

 my camera into the swamp, setting it up fifteen feet from the 

 nest, by the use of a long water tripod, then covering it with 

 rushes. With the bulb of a long hose in one hand I slowly waded 

 toward the nest, stooping to reach under water to cut the 

 intervening grasses from the foreground of my picture. On near- 

 ing the nest I worked slowly, studying every movement to 

 make it noiseless and simple. It was not so easy, for the water 

 was very cold, the muck deep and sticky, while constant watch- 

 ing was required to avoid sinking above my waders in a net- work 

 of muskrat burrows. In my absorption I forgot how nearly I 

 was approaching the nest, until suddenly there came between the 

 grasses a flash of ivory, then a red stain spread on my bared arm. 



I almost cried aloud for joy. Every second I had feared 

 my "Queen" would flatten her feathers and dart into a well- 

 defined runway, that could be detected leading from one -side 

 of the nest into the swamp. But this was pure glory. She was 

 a fighter. She would remain. Talk about excitement! My 

 hair pricked my head; my heart muffled up in my throat as I 

 stooped low, slowly and carefully parting and bending back the 

 grasses of the nest, while the "Queen" struck me without 

 mercy. My hands and arms were seeping blood in twenty-three 

 places when the nest was opened to my satisfaction; but the 

 "Queen " had not showed the slightest inclination to leave it when 

 J finished the exposure and closed it again. 



Every day for seven days I slipped into the swamp, set up 

 my camera, closer and closer each time, and opened that nest. 

 Each day the "Queen" paid less and less heed to me. On the 

 day that I travelled those fourteen miles for the seventh time, 

 my camera was set with no covering at all, exactly where it was 

 wanted, the grasses parted widely, without the slightest protest 



37 



