104 RALLUS CREPITANs. 



greatest before a storm. About the 20th of May, they 

 generally commence laying and building at the same 

 time; the first egg being usually dropt in a slight 

 cavity, lined with a little dry i:ras pulled for the pur- 

 pose, which, as the number of the eggs increase to their 

 usual complement, ten, is gradually added to, until it 

 rises to the height of twelve inches or more, doubt !<.> 

 to secure it from the rising of the tides. Over this the 

 long salt grass is artfully arched, and knit at top, to 

 conceal it from the view above ; but this very circum- 

 stance enables the experienced egg hunter to distinguish 

 the spot at the distance of thirty or forty yards, though 

 imperceptible to a common eye. The eggs are of a 

 pale clay colour, sprinkled with small spots of dark red, 

 and measure somewhat more than an inch and a half in 

 length, by one inch in breadth, being rather obtuse at 

 the small end. These eggs are exquisite eating, far 

 surpassing those of the domestic hen. The height of 

 laying is about the 1st of June, when the people of the 

 neighbourhood go off to the marshes an eyying, as it is 

 called. So abundant are the nests of this species, and 

 so dexterous some persons at finding them, that one 

 hundred dozen of eggs have been collected by one man 

 in a day. At this time, the crows, the minx, and the 

 foxes, come in for their share ; but, not content with 

 the eggs, those last often seize and devour the parents 

 also. The bones, feathers, wings, &c. of the poor mud 

 hen lie in heaps near the hole of the minx ; by which 

 circumstance, however, he himself is often detected and 

 destroyed. 



These birds are also subject to another calamity of a 

 more extensive kind : After the greater part of the 

 are laid, there sometimes happen violent northeast 

 tempests, that drive a great sea into the bay, covering 

 the whole marshes ; so that at such times the rail may 

 be seen in hundreds, floating over the marsh in great 

 distress ; many escape to the mainland ; and va^t 

 numbers perish. On an occasion of this kind I have 

 seen, at one view, thousands in a single meadow, 

 walking about exposed and bewildered, while the dead 



