L/ 
W*m 
xf 
S OF BIRD LIFE 
the nest, I gave up hopes of seeing this family of rail youngsters, 
and getting into mv canoe I started to paddle toward home, 
\\ . 
M 
rather dejected by my failure. 
1 On my homeward journey I kept my canoe close to the 
A y 
cnnrp nprr 
shore, perchance I might see another rail and her young, feeding 
among the reeds along the way. In this conjecture I was not 
wrong. I had paddled down the stream about a hundred yards 
m when I noticed a slight movement among some cat tails grow- 
f., 
n„ t 
fib 
ing about profusely at this point. I slipped quietly up to the 
place and peered about among the rushes but saw nothing. 
Thinking that I may have been mistaken, I started to leave the 
place when I saw a sora rail, a female followed by a brood of 
young, about ten feet ahead, in a tangle of reeds, cat tails, and 
arrow heads. I grasped my glasses, always handy for an emer¬ 
gency like this, and beheld nine downy little rails black as night 
in appearance, and with a soft tuft of whitish yellow on the / 
breast, and a bright red protuberance at the base of the uppei> 
mandible. They were a funny lot of youngsters to behold as 
they darted here and there after objects on the water. I could not 
make out what they were catching, but they must have been 
water insects or some vegetable material. The mother bird was 
11 
f 
s, 
IP 
\\\\ 1 
sailing about among her offspring pointing out as it were, the 
sjp&li i ■ 
-- 
L 
U/jjlrrW 4 
[ 68 ] 
H IM WiWWW ['M/'Mt mMLWI/wTl / -— ——- 
v A V\\V ’/A ■ ■ /nil' -Wlkvatfri/ 
tv 
T 
