Vermont Botanical and Bird Club 9 



We had been searching for nests only a short time, when Mr. 

 Myrick located a Virginia rail's nest just completed, about two feet 

 from the water in a mass of dead grasses; then a short distance from 

 this I found one containing two eggs. This nest was also placed up in 

 the grasses. 



I have forgotten now just how many nests we located in the short 

 time we spent in the bog, but I would say probably eight or 10. Some 

 were placed on the ground at the foot of cat-tails, built up from the 

 water with dead grasses and cat-tails as supports. Others were arched 

 over and placed in thick masses of dead cat-tails. A few were just 

 completed.. Others containing from one to five eggs were seen. As 

 we failed to locate a full set, (which is from eight to 12 eggs), I de- 

 cided to visit this location again in two weeks. 



Just as we were leaving on the occasion of the first visit I heard 

 Mr. Myrick call, saying that he had found something different. I hur- 

 ried over. to him, and there among a luxuriant growth of cat-tails, and 

 placed on the ground, was a sora rail's nest containing 13 eggs, in two 

 layers; about the finest sight I ever saw. At once the parent birds 

 commenced their cackling call, "cut-cut-cut-cut"; the first sora I had 

 ever heard. The birds were very tame, and as they were so near, 

 (only six or eight feet distant), and making such a disturbance, it 

 seemed as though we were about stepping on them; especially as the 

 grasses were so dense, it was impossible to see them. The nest was 

 made of a mass of dead cat-tail flags, and was about six inches deep, 

 and eight inches wide. The eggs ranged in incubation from about 

 three to 10 days. I now have the nest and eggs in my collection. Mr. 

 L. F. Brehmer, photographer of Rutland, has a colored lantern slide 

 and stereoscope of this nest and eggs. 



Two weeks later, I again visited the place and found that most 

 of the Virginia rails' nests found on the earlier date had been destroyed 

 by mice and muskrats, and in one of the nests I found a litter of young 

 field mice. (Microtus pennsylvanicus) . As we found these nests de- 

 stroyed, I decided to try a different part of the swamp and then went 

 north of the meadow, just in the edge of the pasture. As soon as we 

 entered the cat-tails a number of Virginia rails commenced to sound 

 their alarm notes, and in a few minutes I had located three nests, one 

 containing seven eggs, the other two containing eight eggs each. 



Most of the eggs in each nest were pipped. All of these nests were 

 placed on the ground, and not concealed in the least. One I could easily 

 see when 20 feet away. 



