CHAPTER II 



The " Queen" Rail: Eallus Elegans 



IN A SWAMP 



There are particularly fine 

 specimens among birds and ani- 

 mals as well as among men; and 

 for this reason one bird no more 

 represents the whole of its species 

 than one man represents the 

 whole of his race. The greatest 

 thing ever done with a bird was 

 to win its confidence. I have 

 done this in the case of many 

 brooding birds, but never to a de- 

 gree surpassing this instance. 

 One evening one of the Faithful brought me word that seven 

 miles east of the cabin, in a little swamp in one corner of Eli Mc- 

 Collum's corn-field, "a large bird brooded on a nestful of big 

 eggs." A message like that means everything delightful to a 

 natural-history photographer, and I could scarcely await the com- 

 ing morning to be on my way. That night I dreamed of a great 

 bird that carried me on its back across a waving green swamp 

 and kindly poised in air above its nest while a study of its eggs 

 was made. 



Early the next morning I donned my swamp outfit, packed 

 four cameras and started. The road wound off to the northeast 



31 



HIDING AN EGG FROM SIGHT 



