BIRDS FOUND IN BAYOUS AND MARSHES 103 



Geographical Distribution : North America ; south in winter to northern 

 parts of South America. 



Breeding Range: Northern United States, northward, including Cali- 

 fornia and Oregon. 



Breeding Season: May and June. 



Nest: Of grass ; on the ground, in a marshy place. 



Eggs: 7 to 14 ; cream-color, marked with cinnamon and lilac. Size 

 1.26 X 0.90. 



The Sora Rail breeds commonly in California in 

 swamps about Los Angeles and other suitable localities. 

 Unlike the clapper rail, it prefers fresh-water sloughs, 

 where it hides among the tall rushes. The baby Rails 

 are fluffy little black chicks with absurdly laige feet, and 

 necks too long for their fjit little bodies. Almost as 

 soon as hatched they run about among the grass of the 

 drier parts, sometimes being taken away from the water 

 to an adjacent meadow, Avhere they soon learn to snap 

 up bugs and small grasshoppers. Like all the rail 

 family, the Soras are most musical at dawn and dusk, 

 when their queer weird notes make the marshland seem 

 an uncanny spot. In the South this species is sold as a 

 game bird under the name of ortolan, and is much liked 

 by epicures, though its thin little body has, not without 

 reason, given rise to the saying ''As thin as a rail."' It 

 is abundant on migrations, flying at night and resting 

 wherever it hap[)ens to be duiing the day, even in the 

 noisy streets of Chicago. In these circumstances it 

 seems stupid and confused. I have captured it without 

 difficulty while it was resting, as it squats on the ground, 

 making [djsolutely no effort to escape. 



Mr. Frank Chapman writes of this species: "The 

 Sera's summer home is in fiesh-water marshes, \\ here, 



