99 



only during the early morning and late afternoon, both birds 

 leaving the marsh during the heat of the day. When long 

 excursions are made to the edges of the marsh, the male 

 accompanies the female. When she forages near the nest, 

 he takes a position upon some prominent point, from which 

 he can keep her under his eye and drive away any intruding 

 males. Such watchfulness may have resulted from the fe- 

 male's tendency toward polyandry, which has been mentioned 

 above. 



Egg-laying usually follows immediately upon the completion 

 of the nest, though intervals of two and three days before the 

 deposition of the first egg have been recorded. The usual 

 complement is three or four, the one number being as common 

 as the other. Not infrequently five eggs, and rarely six, are 

 found in a nest. Sets of seven, as recorded by Dawson (1903), 

 have not been discovered here. The eggs are always un- 

 mistakable, though there is considerable variation in color, 

 markings, size, and shape. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway's 

 (1874) concise account of the eggs may be quoted here: ''The 

 eggs vary greatly in size: the largest measures 1.08 inches by 

 .82 of an inch; the smallest .90 by .65. They average about 

 an inch in length and .77 of an inch in breadth. They are 

 oval in shape, have a light bluish ground, and are marbled, 

 lined, and blotched with markings of light and dark purple 

 and black. These markings are almost wholly about the 

 larger end, and are very varying." One nest was discovered 

 containing four eggs, which were slightly paler in ground color 

 than the average, and had no spots or markings of any kind. 

 From these to eggs in which the ground color is almost con- 

 cealed with cloudings of brown, and with heavy spots and 

 blotches, all intergradations have been found. 



During the days when the eggs are being deposited, fre- 

 quently both birds continue their excursions to the uplands. 

 With the laying of the third egg, incubation begins, and thence- 

 forth both birds remain in the marsh. Incubation, so far as 

 observed, is performed entirely by the female. In one instance 

 the first egg hatched in ten days, and frequently one or more of 

 the eggs requires twelve, but the usual period is eleven days. 



