104 
RALLUS CREPITANS. 
greatest before a storm. About the 20th 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 pur- 
pose, which, as the number of the eggs increase 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 circum- 
stance enables the experienced egg hunter to distinguish 
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 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 northeast 
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 
