CLAPPER RAIL. lis 



of May they generally commence laying and building at the same 

 time; the first egg being usually dropt in a slight cavity, lined 

 with a little dry grass pulled for the purpose, which, as the number 

 of the eggs increase to their usual complement teuj is gradually 

 added to, until it rises to the height of twelve inches or more, 

 doubtless to secure it fi 'om 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 expe- 

 rienced egg hunter to distinguish the spot at the distance of thirty 

 or forty yards, tho imperceptible to a common eye. The eggs 

 are of a pale clay color, 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. Tliese 

 eggs are exquisite eating, far surpassing those of the domestic hen. 

 The height of laying is about the first 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, those 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 himself 

 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, floating over the marsh in great 

 distress; many escape to the main land; 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 



VOL. VII. F f 



