A MARSH MYSTERY 
ing '' noise confirmed the resemblance. 
Finally the mother emerged from the denser 
reeds, and strutted about with a queer minc- 
ing gait and self-satisfied air, very much as a 
motherly old hen might do. Once she for- 
got her dignity and ran post-haste for a bug, 
with her long neck stretched out and her 
legs propelling rather than supporting her 
body. Undoubtedly the male bird was the 
one who had uttered the strange cries, for 
the female was silent as long as we watched 
her. 
To photograph this interesting family was 
obviously impossible, both on account of 
the swaying screen of rushes which hid us, 
and the fading light. Just as we had de- 
cided to attempt the capture of at least one 
of the five babies, we heard human voices 
approaching. The rails heard also, and 
vanished so utterly and so silently that I 
wondered whether they had really been there 
at all. Vexatious as this interruption was, it 
aroused us to a sense of our lost ” condi- 
tion, and, standing up to halloo, we saw the 
139 
