Jan., 1915 WITH RALLUS IN THE TEXAS 3IARSlt 7 slightly less in volume. It was so unexpected and so discordant that I nearly jumped out of my skin (figuratively speaking), entertaining the feelings of a pedestrian who hears a shrieking auto siren at his back. I could see that Ewing was affected the same way, for he turned pale with fright and was about to crawl under a nearby bush. I saved him from that undignified pro- ceeding by explaining that it was merely our friend Rallus, which had doubt- less been watching us with tolerance, until we touched her eggs, from a dist- ance of about fifteen feet. Four days passed before I visited the nest again. On Thursday Sir. How- srd G. Hill and I made the trip across the prairies, approaching the marsh from opposite sides. I had a trusty Graflex ready to spring, but no bird appesred. For over an hour and a half we waited patiently near the nest, sans coat, sans sleeves, under the blistering rays of the tropical sun, with the nesrest shelter three miles away. But all to no avail. Fig. 4. NEST AND E{](}S OF THE SOUTHERN ME,?OOWL,?RK, PHOTO(}RAPHED .?'EAR HOUSTOX, TEx?s, JU?E 11, 1914 The nest was built up in a clump of rushes and grass, thirteen and a quar- ter inches above the ground. and was neatly hidden by the thick growth of rushes closely surrounding it on all sides. It was a thick msss of vegetation (bully rushes and grasses) five and a quarter inches thick, supported by the broken stalks of the rushes and by a small vine which had entwined itself about the stalks below. The top of the nest wss slightly concave, the edges being an inch and a quarter above the center, s.nd we found it to measure nine and a half inches from rim to rim. The eggs were quite soiled and stained, being splashed and spattered with the oozing slime of the marsh; they were light buffy specimens. marked with small spots and specks of a reddish brown which were distributed in an irreg- ular circle near the extremity of the larger end. They measured in inches:
1.76xl.23; 1.69x1.19; 1.68x1.18; 1.67x1.19; 1.66xl.20; 1.66x1.17; 1.64xl.20;
1.63x1.22; 1.63x1.19; 1.63x1.17; and 1.62x1.21.
