FRIENDS IN FEATHERS 



from the bird; she did not move or open her beak, while she 

 neither looked nor felt afraid or annoyed. Then with a slow 

 plate and time exposure, the frontispiece of this chapter was 

 made; a study of a bird that any hunter will tell you is one of 

 our wildest, shyest creatures. 



After changing the plate, I desired a reproduction of the nest 

 and eggs to complete the series. As the "Queen " would not leave, 

 I gently picked her up, being extremely careful to lift her straight 

 above the nest, so as not to break an egg. Holding her on my 

 breast, with her head slipped inside my blouse, that she might 

 not be alarmed by seeing me touch her eggs, I made an exposure 

 on her nest. 



Her eggs were twelve in number, four and one-half inches 

 around the long way and three and three-quarters at the larger 

 end, by the best measurements I could secure and hold the 

 "Queen" with one hand. They were of a pale ash-colour, 

 sparsely sprinkled with splotches of reddish brown and faint 

 lavender markings that seemed as if seen through a thin, oily veil. 

 In the golden bowl with the green arch above they were exquisite. 



Then I set the "Queen" on the edge of her nest and kissed 

 the top of her shining head in parting, for I knew what was 

 on those plates. The grasses of her arch were closed as nearly 

 as she had them as was possible for me to arrange them. Every- 

 thing was replaced as I found it; then I hurried away, un- 

 speakably grateful to the bird that would allow such fellowship on 

 the part of a mortal. 



Our unfamiliarity with the King Rail arises, not from the fact 

 that it is so uncommon the swamps are filled with them ; but be- 

 cause they are extremely wild and almost never take wing, trusting 

 to escape pursuit by flattening the feathers against the slender 

 bodies and darting between the reeds and rushes, where dogs can not 

 penetrate or hunters shoot; hence the expression, " slim as a rail." 



38 



