CLAPPER RAIL. 
17 
cavity, lined witli a little dry grass pulled for the purpose, 
which, as the number of the eggs increase to their usual com- 
plement, ten, is gradually added to, until it rises to the height 
of twelve inches or more, — doubtless to secure it from the ri- 
sing 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 experienced egg-hunter to dis- 
tinguish the spot at the distance of thirty or forty yards, though 
imperceptible to a common eye. The eggs are of a pale clay 
colour, 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. These eggs 
are exquisite eating, far surpassing those of the domestic hen. 
The height of laying is about the 1st 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 dex- 
terous 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 mainland ; 
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 nests, were strewed 
along the shore. This last circumstance proves how strong 
the ties of maternal affection is in these birds ; for of the great 
numbers which I picked up and opened, not one male was to 
VOL. III. B 
