1891
May 18
(no 2)
A hunt for Rails eggs in Fresh Pond Swamps.
Mass.
Cambridge. - We hunted across the west end of the
meadow without finding anything more and on
reaching the Central R.R. embankment met Torrey
coming from the Coot pool where he had been vainly
watching and listening for the Gallinules which
he saw April 30 and which no one has been
able to sight since. They must have been migrants
found further north - or they may have been shot.
Torrey had seen nothing more interesting than
a Wood Duck - at Pont Pond.
  Entering the meadow bordering Little River, Francis 
found a second Swamp Sparrow's nest which contained
four eggs. A Carolina Rail was singing in this
meadow but we f ailed to find the nest. The
place proved so difficult on account of the depth
of water and the sticky character of the mud
that we left it and returned to the great
meadow where Francis - always lucky when with 
me if not at all times - came suddenly on a
Carolina Rail's nest which contained nine eggs.
[margin]Swamp Sparrow's nest[/margin]
The nest was in a bed of short scanty cat-tails
which afforded it so little concealment that
the pile of eggs (they were in two tiers two eggs
being on top of the others) could be seen twenty
yards away from every side. A thin fringe of
Equisetum grew immediately around the nest
and the stalks had been bent over the nest and
intertwined by the bird forming a curious and
very beautiful arbor as of dark green wire which,
however, formed a thin screen wholly
inadequate for purposes of concealment. The nest
[margin]Carolina Rail's nest & eggs[/margin]