1891
June 2
(No 3)
Mass.
North Truro. - [?] shore and spent an hour or
more searching for nests. The marsh was like
that around other parts of the pond but
the walking, in places, was much better the
ground being sandy & firm. A Bittern was
pumping at the spot where we landed and
he with two others rose as soon as we showed
our heads above the flags but we could
find no nets and concluded that all three
were merely feeding there.
  The results of our search in this marsh
were a set of seven mud-stained Carolina
Rail's eggs and two Gallinule's nests, both
empty, but at least one new and in good
condition. We heard several Carolina and Va.
Rails and found their tracks, as well as those
of Gallinules, nearly everywhere. In fact the
entire marsh was intersected by a perfect
net-work of paths or run ways leading from
our pool to the next and evidently used
by all three of the birds just named. The
Gallinules, however, were apparently not all
all numerous here.
  We ended the day by paddling through
a long, sinuous creek in the marsh at the
head of the pond and visiting the
Gallinule's nest found yesterday afternoon.
To our great surprise we found that two
of the eggs had hatched. The egg shells lay
in and below the nest and the chicks,
both of which we took, were sprawling and