118 
CLAPPER RAIL. 
of May they generally commence laying and building at the same 
time ; the first egg being usually dropped in a slight cavity, lined 
with a little dry grass pulled for the purpose, which, as the number 
of the eggs increases to their usual complement ten, is gradually 
added to, until it rises to the height of twelve inches or more, 
doubtless to secure it from 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. These 
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 neighborhood 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 foxes 
and the minxes, come in for their share ; but not content with the 
eggs, these last often seize and devour the pai'ents 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 groups, floating over them in great dis- 
tress ; many escape to the main land; and vast numbers perish. 
On an occasion of this kind I have seen, at one view, hundi’eds in 
a single meadow, walking about exposed and bewildered, while 
the dead bodies of the females who had perished on or near their 
