142 DAYS OUT OF DOORS. 



markable. They " peeped " incessantly, their voice being 

 clear and fife-like, while the parent birds uttered, with few 

 intermissions, a pig-like note that has been well described 

 as sounding like Mek-Mek-keh. I discovered these birds — 

 but not the cause of their distress — early in the afternoon, 

 and remained for several hours at the edge of the marsh, 

 watching their strange antics. As the reeds, rushes, cala- 

 mus, and dock were all too dense to enable me to see the 

 birds constantly, I naturally fell to conjecturing what 

 might have caused the commotion. Of course the prob- 

 abilities were that some animal had attacked the young 

 birds. But the speed with which the young could run 

 rendered it improbable that they were really in any dan- 

 ger, unless surprised. In a fair race they could outrun a 

 black-snake. While I waited and wondered, several times 

 the birds moved apparently to the opposite side of the 

 meadow, judging by their voices, and then in a body came 

 back to very near the spot where I was lying in wait. 

 This strange movement materially increased my curiosity, 

 but I was helpless in the matter. By no known means 

 could I see more than the birds chose to permit, and that 

 was provokingly little. But at last — as is usually the case 

 — I was somewhat rewarded for my patience, for suddenly 

 the rushes began to tremble violently, and with a quick 

 bound a large mink made his appearance. He hesitated a 

 moment as if to recover from fatigue, and then, with that 

 easy gait characteristic of all the weasel tribe, bounded 

 across the meadow. It is fair to suppose that this murder- 

 ous creature had caused the disturbance, from the fact 

 that directly after its departure silence reigned. 



We are apt to consider as instinctive every action of a 

 very young animal — such as the spitting of blind kittens and 

 the barking of newly born puppies — but the acts of young 

 rail birds, that are both strong upon the feet and have ex- 

 cellent vision as soon as hatched, are suggestive of a higher 



