6 
Mr. W. Brewster 071 the 
and finally the female went to the nest and resumed incuba¬ 
tion. I crept cautiously to within three feet of her, and 
looked at her for a few moments, then retreating to a proper 
distance, shot her on the nest. I afterwards secured the 
male also, hut not easily, for he was unusually shy. This 
nest, like the first, was built in a cane over a pool of stag¬ 
nant water, hut it was placed higher, at least six feet above 
the water. It contained one young bird just hatched and 
two eggs, addled, but in every way perfect.” 
These eggs, with the nest in which they were found, have 
been very kindly sent me by Mr. Wayne for examination 
and description. The nest is a remarkable affair, composed 
mainly of leaves—chiefly of the red maple ( Acer rubrurn), 
sweet gum (. Liquidambar styraciflua ), water-oak ( Quercus 
aquatica), and cane ( Arundinaria tecta) —bleached by the sun 
and winds or stained by long immersion in swamp-water, 
and loosely impacted in a large and nearly globular mass, 
one side of which rests between, but is in no way fastened 
to, the upright stem and nearly upright, slightly diverging, 
fascicled branches of a cane, the bottom of the structure being 
about four inches above the point of junction of the main 
stem and its fascicle. As only a little more than one third 
of the circumference of the nest is enclosed by these supports, 
it is probable that they were forced slightly outward during 
the process of building, for otherwise they could scarcely 
clasp this small portion with sufficient firmness to sustain the 
weight of the whole. The sides of the mass round inward 
at the top, which, however, is round and flat, as if a perfect 
globe had been first formed and the top afterwards sliced ofl. 
Near the inner edge of this flat surface is the nest proper, a 
deep, neatly rounded, cup-shaped hollow, smoothly and very 
prettily lined with needles of the short-leaved pine (Pirns 
mitis ) and a few fine black roots, which curiously resemble 
horse-hairs. The inner walls of this cavity next the support¬ 
ing canes are only about half an inch in thickness, but its 
outer rim is bordered by a platform from one and a half 
to two inches in width. Many of the leaves on the outer 
edge of this platform are fixed with their stems pointing offi 
