408 VIRGINIAN RAIL. 



with which it runs or conceals itself among the grass and 

 sedge, are exactly similar to those of the common rail, from 

 which genus, notwithstanding the difference of its bill, it 

 ought not to be separated. 



This bird is known to some of the inhabitants along the 

 sea-coast of JSTew Jersey by the name of the fresh-water mud- 

 hen, this last being the common appellation of the clapper 

 rail, which the present species resembles in everything but size. 

 The epithet fresh-water is given it, because of its frequent- 

 ing those parts of the marsh only where fresh-water springs 

 rise through the bogs into the salt marshes. In these places it 

 usually constructs its nest, one of which, through the active 

 exertions of my friend Mr Ord, while traversing with me the 

 salt marshes of Cape May, we had the good fortune to dis- 

 cover. It was built in the bottom of a tuft of grass, in the 

 midst of an almost impenetrable quagmire, and was composed 

 altogether of old wet grass and rushes. The eggs had been 

 floated out of the nest by the extraordinary rise of the tide in 

 a violent north-east storm, and lay scattered about among the 

 drift weed. The female, however, still lingered near the spot, 

 to which she was so attached as to suffer herself to be taken 

 by hand. She doubtless intended to repair her nest, and 

 commence laying anew, as, during the few hours that she 

 was in our possession, she laid one egg, corresponding in all 

 respects with the others. On examining those floated out of 

 the nest, they contained young, perfectly formed, but dead. The 

 usual number of eggs is from six to ten. They are shaped 

 like those of the domestic hen, measuring one inch and two- 

 tenths long, by very nearly half an inch in width, and are of a 

 dirty white or pale cream colour, sprinkled with specks of 

 reddish and pale purple, most numerous near the great end. 

 They commence laying early in May, and probably raise two 

 broods in the season. I suspect this from the circumstance of 

 Mr Ord having, late in the month of Jul}', brought me several 

 young ones of only a few days old, which were caught among 

 the grass near the border of the Delaware. The parent rail 



