140 
N£STS AND EGGS OF 
Having decided upon their migratory tour, they start in small com- 
panies, from four to six in number. These settle down in small tracts of 
country of a few rods in area on reaching their destination. Low, swampy 
thickets generally invite their presence. Here they conceal themselves 
during the day. But when night has dethroned her rival, and temporarily 
assumed the reins of power, they come out of their grassy retreats, and 
wander about in search of food. The setting of the sun behind the west- 
ern hill-tops is the signal for their nocturnal rambles to begin. And well 
do they keep them up. For it is not until the first streak of morning is 
seen to glow in the East that they abandon their foragings and retire 
to accustomed haunts. Few there are who have visited these birds at 
such times. Let us take our readers to yon neighboring swamp, or by the 
side of some lowly woodland, which these strange beings delight to fre- 
quent. The utmost silence must be maintained, or our friends will be 
frightened away. AVhile we may not be able to see the objects that have 
called us hither, we know they are not far away by the rustle which they 
produce among the dry leaves, and by the peculiar notes which they emit, 
for there are two or three individuals together, as they move restlessly 
about in the undergrowth, in their search for worms. Chip-per, ^cliip-per, 
chip may be heard from the right, and almost in the next instant it is 
varied to bleat or bleat ta bleat ta, j)roduced in the contrary direction, or 
off in the distance, showing that the authors thereof have changed their 
positions. While these birds have an habitual fondness for humid thickets, 
they not unfrequently betake themselves to corn-fields and other cultivated 
tracts in close proximity thereto, and even to elevated woods. 
For more than a fortnight after their arrival the sexes, though feeding 
in company, do not ajjparently manifest a disposition to assume conjugal 
relationship. The desire for food seems to be uppermost in their minds. 
The inclemency of the weather, and the coldness of the ground in conse- 
quence, may have much to do with holding the amatory forces in check. 
But when the opportune moment arrives, which it does in the course of 
events, the sexes stop from their feeding, in a measure, and give the nobler 
