In a Sea-side Forest. 193 



fondness for meat, and the fresher and bloodier 

 the better. 



In early summer there is one source of animal 

 food in abundance: the eggs and newly-hatched 

 young of the clapper-rails. These birds are phe- 

 nomenally abundant now, their kek-kek-kek rattling 

 over the meadows until the whole marsh trembles. 

 That mice feast upon their eggs seems to me the 

 more probable, because in the mucky meadow at 

 home the king-rail has the same creature to con- 

 tend with. Is it safe upon such data to come to 

 any conclusion ? I have never seen a mouse with 

 a mud-hen's ei^'g, but I have found this same 

 animal rioting in a king-rail's nest, and so infer as 

 stated. 



It is among the marvels of nature that any bird 

 should nest upon the ground ; their common- 

 sense should warn them, but does not. Probably 

 in a wide marsh of a thousand acres or more the 

 clapper-rails or mud-hens are comparatively safe ; 

 but not so in the upland mucky meadows. I have 

 king-rails every year nesting at my elbow, as it 

 were, and every year suffering from mice, minks, 

 and snapping-turtles. How many generations are 

 I « 17 



