WHAT I HAVE DONE WITH BIRDS 



the road, and then I knew that it came from a King Rail and that 

 this was the palace of his Queen. 



She had chosen her location on a little hummock, far out in 

 a deep pool, and so few inches above the water that when brood- 

 ing she could take a drink without rising. The erection of her 

 palace evidently had been simplicity itself. She had snipped this 

 year's green grass from her location, sat down in the old dead, 

 dry blades, and repeatedly turned around. Then she had gath- 

 ered the dry blades she had broken off, dropped them under her 

 and worked them down with her feet. This gave her a large, 

 flat, bowl-shaped nest of beautiful shades of tan, yellow and 

 brown dried-grass blades. The finishing touch was to catch the 

 long rank-growing blades above her head, draw them together 

 and weave them into an arch of living green. 



Through its sides the brooding Rail could be seen. She was a 

 large, splendid specimen of her species, her plumage a bright 

 beautiful brown, with little V-shaped markings of white over her 

 back and touches of black about the wings, in the shape of black 

 feathers twice banded with white. The top of her head was a 

 smooth even brown with ash-colored streaks above the eyes. Her 

 throat was a paler ash. Later I saw that her legs were slender, 

 smooth, a pale greenish yellow, and her feet graceful, with slim 

 toes and sharp black nails. Her beak was elegant in its sym- 

 metrical curve, with hints of red and yellow at the base, daintily 

 cut nostrils and rich ivory tip. But the loveliest things of all were 

 her big, wise, wonderful eyes, as she sat motionless, steadily re- 

 garding me. 



As I returned her fearless gaze the thought came to me that, 

 if the King Rail earned his royalty by personally conducting the 

 migratory voyages of the Quail, as he was accredited with having 

 done at the time of his coronation in early France, his mate un- 

 doubtedly was worthy of equal honors; for she was graceful, 



34 



