1890  
May 22
Cambridge, Massachusetts
A day in the Fresh Pond Swamps
  Cool with raw N.E. wind. The sun shining dimly through 
thin clouds. 
  To Pont Pond Swamp at 8.30 a.m., Denton following me
an hour later with basket, egg-boxes, camera, wading trousers
etc. On reaching the swamp found Faxon ensconsed in the
gully on the knoll on the west side where Torrey and I sat last
evening. He had heard the Gallinules a few times but had
[margin] Gallinula gal.
not seen them. Soon after I found him, however, one of them
swam across the ditch into the flooded maple swamp. We 
tried to see it there but it discovered us and flew back into
the cat-tail and willow bog. After Denon came another came out
and spent fifteen minutes or more standing on an island
in the middle of the ditch, first bathing most energetically, then
pluming itself, finally swimming back into the swamp. Later
as Denton and I were eating lunch this or another bird came
out three times in half-an-hour, bathing again. In the 
afternoon Faxon saw one bird several times and once two
together.
  At 10 a.m. I put on my wading trousers and entered
the swamp keeping around that portion which the Gallinules
[margin] Rails' nests
haunt and searching the remainder closely for Rail's nests. 
I was much surprised to find five pairs of Va. Rails with
broods of young and three nests with egg shells from which
young had lately escaped. I also found twelve empty nests
which contained no trace of shells. Some looked perfectly
new and very neat, others dishevelled. All were in the tops 
of tussocks. The Rails with young were very noisy and
bold following me about. 
  For a long time I found only two nests with eggs, both
Blackbirds'. Finally as I was losing hope a Carolina Rail
darted out of a clump of tall grass and crept off over