CLAPPER RAIL. 



411 



which, as the number of the eggs increase to their usual com- 

 plement, ten, is gradually added to, until it rises to the height 

 of twelve inches or more, — doubtless to secure it from the 

 rising of the tides. Over this the long salt grass is artfully 

 arched, and knit at top, to conceal it from the view above ; 

 but this very circumstance enables the experienced egg-hunter 

 to distinguish the spot at the distance of thirty or forty yards, 

 though imperceptible to a common eye. The eggs are of a 

 pale clay colour, sprinkled with small spots of dark red, and 

 measure somewhat more than an inch and a half in length, by 

 one inch in breadth, being rather obtuse at the small end. 

 These eggs are exquisite eating, far surpassing those of the 

 domestic hen. The height of laying is about the 1st of June, 

 when the people of the neighbourhood go off to the marshes 

 an egging, as it is called. So abundant are the nests of this 

 species, and so dexterous some persons at finding them, that 

 one hundred dozen of eggs have been collected by one man 

 in a day. At this time, the crows, the minx, and the foxes, 

 come in for their share ; but, not content with the eggs, these 

 last often seize and devour the parents also. The bones, 

 feathers, wings, &c, of the poor mud-hen lie in heaps near the 

 hole of the minx, by which circumstance, however, he him- 

 self is often detected and destroyed. 



These birds are also subject to another calamity of a more 

 extensive kind : After the greater part of the eggs are laid, 

 there sometimes happen violent north-east tempests, that 

 drive a great sea into the bay, covering the whole marshes ; 

 so that at such times the rail may be seen in hundreds, float- 

 ing over the marsh in great distress ; many escape to the 

 mainland, and vast numbers perish. On an occasion of this 

 kind, I have seen, at one view, thousands in a single meadow, 

 walking about exposed and bewildered, while the dead bodies 

 of the females, who had perished on or near their nests, were 

 strewed along the shore. This last circumstance proves how 

 strong the ties of maternal affection is in these birds ; for, of 

 the great numbers which I picked up and opened, not one 

 male was to be found amon£ them — all were females ! Such 



