DELAWARE VALLEY OENITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 21 



were shot but the rails survived. Finding them still present 

 on May 29th, we decided to investigate at an early date. At 

 this time we identified several Short-billed Marsh Wrens, but 

 on subsequent trips were unable to flush them. On June 7th 

 we started for rails' nests with the following results set down 

 in my note book and copied here exactly: 



" June 7-1909. — This afternoon Foster White and I started 

 for the Centre Furnace Swamp, where we saw the Rails and 

 Marsh Wrens on May 29. . . . We . . . entered the swamp 

 and, though seeing no marsh wrens, I was agreeably surprised 

 at our luck with the Rails. We saw several of these, both Vir- 

 ginias and Soras, several being flushed from their nests. While 

 looking about I came on a nest of the Virginia Rail containing 

 ten eggs. The nest was a frail structure of marsh-grass, placed 

 under a tussock and cunningly hidden. The bird was flushed 

 about ten yards off. 



"About twenty yards off I found a nest of the Sora Rail in 

 the midst of a grass tussock. It also held ten eggs, quite dis- 

 tinct (as was the nest) from those of the Virginia. The nest 

 was cunningly concealed in the center of a grass tussock about 

 three inches over the water, which was about ten inches deep. 

 Several of the eggs laid on top of the others. Not far from here 

 I found an incomplete nest of the Virginia, as well as one of 

 the Sora. Down in the east end of the swamp I flushed a Sora 

 and several yards off found her nest in a tussock, poorly con- 

 cealed and somewhat in the open. It held one fresh egg (after- 

 ward destroyed by Snapping Turtle). Not far from here a Sora 

 rushed off her nest hurriedly, and in a moment I saw her nest 

 neatly concealed in a tussock and holding six hatching eggs and 

 one young, black, little Rail. Nearby were two broken egg- 

 shells of birds already hatched. About 50 yards off I flushed a 

 Virginia Rail and soon found her nest, built in a thick clump of 

 marsh-grass and raised eight inches above the water. It held 

 10 eggs. Some 76 yards off, White came on still another Vir- 

 ginia's nest with 10 eggs. It was built over shallow water about 

 one foot up in the thick marsh-grass. The bird was seen nearby. 

 All the nests were compactly made of dry marsh-grasses and 

 shreds of flags. The Rails usually run off and fly up when you 



