156 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 



Distribution. — Temperate North America, breeding chiefly northward, 

 but less commonly on the Pacific coast. Casually north to south Greenland. 

 South to the West Indies and northern South America. 



All things considered this is our commonest Michigan rail, nesting 

 abundantly in suitable places all over the state, and frequenting almost all 

 wet places except the overflowed woodlands which have neither underbrush 

 nor grass. Their favorite haunts are the extensive marshes of cattails, 

 wild rice, reeds and sedges, but a pair or two can almost always be found 

 in any small cat-hole in the pasture or woods, and they frequently are found 

 along the ditches and swales which border the highway, even when there 

 are no large marshes within sight. 



In general habits they are similar to the Virginia Rail, but in most places 

 are more abundant and they also appear to be less shy and suspicious; 

 at all events they are more often seen by the sportsman and the average 

 pedestrian. They are decidedly noisy, their loud and not unmusical notes 

 being one of the characteristic sounds of our marshes, most noticeable at 

 evening, though often heard all night long. If one hides among the reeds, 

 or merely sits quietly in his boat in a favorable spot, he is very likely to see 

 one or more of these birds tripping lightly over the lily-pads or other 

 floating vegetation, picking up insects, snails, or floating seeds, and occa- 

 sionally fluttering up among the stems to catch an insect or reach a spray of 

 wild rice. Mr. Chapman speaks of their ordinary note as a "clear whistled 

 ker-wee, now and then interrupted by a high-voiced rolling whmny which, 

 like a call of alarm, is taken up and repeated by different birds all over the 

 marsh. They seem so absorbed by their musical devotions that even 

 when calling continuously it requires endless patience and keen eyes to see 

 the dull colored, motionless forms in places where one would not suppose 

 there was sufficient growth to conceal them" (Handbook, 1904, p. 143). 



The nest is similar to that of the other rails, sometimes well built, some- 

 times very carelessly, almost always, however, in vegetation which is 

 growing directly in the water. The eggs vary from 6 to 15, and are buffy 

 white of a much deeper shade than those of the Virginia Rail, and usually 

 more thickly and heavily spotted with brown and purple. They average 

 1.32 by .95 inches. 



This bird is commonly shot by sportsmen and is considered good eating. 

 After it has become fat on wild rice at the south it is much sought after 

 and is the "ortolan" of the Washington and Baltimore markets. The 

 name is an absurd one, having been transferred to this bird from the Bob- 

 olink, which is now called Rice-bird in the same localities. The true Ortolan 

 (Emberiza hortulana) is a European sparrow or finch about the size of our 

 Bobolink and much prized as food in southern Europe. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adiilt: Face and median line of crown black; rest of upper parts olive brown, spotted 

 witli pure black, and streaked and dotted with white; sides of head and neck bluish ash, 

 this color covering all the lower neck and the forepart of the breast; auricular region brown 

 like the back; chin and median line of throat black; lower breast and belly nearly white, 

 faintly barred with dusky; sides and flanks distinctly barred with black and white; sides 

 of breast shaded with olive, more or less dotted with white; under tail-coverts white, 

 washed with rufous. Bill bright yellow, feet green. Sexes alike. Immature: Similar, 

 but lores and stripe over the eye brownish, the bluish ash of head, neck and breast replaced 

 by light grayish brown. Downy, young, clear black with a tuft of orange colored bristly 

 feathers on the breast. Length 7.85 to 9.75 inches; wing 4.15 to 4.30; culmen .75 to .90. 



