VIRGINIA KAIL 279 



the summer. Here it may be constantly heard and occa- 

 sionally seen, picking its way along the edge of the marsh 

 or between the tussocks of sedge, or, when startled, flying a 

 short distance with weak flight and dangling legs, and then 

 dropping into the grass. It walks with a constant upright 

 tilt of its short tail, thus exposing the buffy under tail- 

 coverts. 



The notes of the Carolina Rail, heard most commonly 

 at the approach of dusk and all through the evening, and 

 also at intervals through the day, 

 are a long frog-like cry, resem- 

 bling the syllable kur-iuee 1 ', and 

 a whinny. The birds utter also, 

 when startled, a cry like the syl- 

 lable kuk ; a stone thrown into 

 the cat-tails in late summer or 

 fall is almost sure to provoke this 



cry. Its short yellow bill shows conspicuously against the 

 black about its base, and distinguishes it from the Virginia 

 Rail, which has a long dark bill. 



Virginia Rail. Rallus virginianus 

 9.50. Bill 1.50 



Ad. — Top of head and back rich brown, streaked with black; 

 sides of head ash-gray; line from bill to eye white, above a black- 

 ish stripe ; part of the wings rich reddish-brown ; under parts a 

 warm brown ; lower belly black, barred with white ; bill long, 

 slightly curved. Im. — Upper parts much as in adult; throat and 

 line down the middle of the lower parts whitish; rest of under 

 parts blackish. 



Nest, a platform of grass or sedge in a tuft of grass or sedge. 

 Eggs, pale buffy-white, spotted and speckled with reddish-brown. 



The Virginia Rail is a summer resident of New York and 

 New England, common in the southern and central por- 

 tions of the region. It arrives in April, and stays till Octo- 



