. The American sportsman: containing hints to sportsmen, notes on shooting, and the habits of the game birds, and wild fowl of America . rous in the brackish fens of Long Island. TheMud-Hen is a migratory Bird, and arrives from the South onthe coast of New Jersey and the neighboring States about themiddle of April. Though coming unobserved in the stillness ofthe night, they soon make their presence known to the inhabi-tants of those districts by the sound of their harsh and never-ceasing cackle^ somewhat resembling the well-known tremulouscry of the Guinea Fowl. Although the marshes and sedgy
. The American sportsman: containing hints to sportsmen, notes on shooting, and the habits of the game birds, and wild fowl of America . rous in the brackish fens of Long Island. TheMud-Hen is a migratory Bird, and arrives from the South onthe coast of New Jersey and the neighboring States about themiddle of April. Though coming unobserved in the stillness ofthe night, they soon make their presence known to the inhabi-tants of those districts by the sound of their harsh and never-ceasing cackle^ somewhat resembling the well-known tremulouscry of the Guinea Fowl. Although the marshes and sedgy mea-dows, in the course of a very few days after their first appearance,resound on all sides with the unmelodious notes of these skulk-ing Birds, few or none of them are to be seen, as they seldomtake wing, and when pursued run with amazing rapidity throughthe tangled weeds and high grass that always grow so luxuri-antly in the haunts that they affect. In our youthful days wehave had many a race after a wounded Clapper, and know fullwell that our powers of speed and endurance were often mostfruitlessly taxed in the doubtful The Mud Hen commences laying towards the close of May;the nest is simple, but often artfully contrived for concealment,having the long grass twisted and plaited over it, in the form ofan arch, so as effectually to obstruct the glance of an inexpe-rienced observer. Eight or ten eggs are usually found in theirnests; we have seen as many as fifteen. Their eggs are eagerlysought after by the residents of those parts, who, in fact, con-sider them far superior in delicacy to those of the domestic wholesale robbery of their nests is not the only interruptionthat the Clapper Eail meets with during the period of incuba- 224 lewis AMERICAN SPORTSMAISr. tion, as the marshes are occasionally overflown during the con-tinuance of a Northeast gale, and thousands of eggs as well asold Birds are destroyed. Wilson mentions an instance where this calamity took
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