474 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



POEZANA CAROLINA, 



The Carolina Rail; Ortolan. 



Ealius (Crex) Carolinus, Bonaparte. Obs. Wils. (1825), No. 230. Nutt. Man., 

 U (1834) 209. 



Ortyc/ometra Carolina, Audubon. Birds Am., V. (1842) 145. 



Description. 



Space around the base of the bill, extending downwards on the neck before and 

 over the top of the head, black. 



Male. — Upper parts greenish-brown, with longitudinal bands of black, and 

 many feathers having narrow stripes of white on their edges; behind the ej-e, sides 

 of the neck, and the breast, fine bluish- ashy, with circular spots and transverse 

 bands of white on the breast; middle of tlie abdomen and under tail coverts white; 

 sides and flanks with transverse bands of brownish-black and white ; bill greenish- 

 yellow; legs dark-green. 



Female. — Similar, but duller in colors. 



Young. — Without black at the base of the bill or on the neck ; throat dull-white; 

 breast dull yellowish-ashy; upper parts tinged with dull-yellow; iris chestnut. 



Total length, about eight and a half inches; wing, four and a quarter; tail, two 

 inches. 



This species, like the Virginia Rail, is probably more 

 abundant in our fresh-water meadows than is generally sup- 

 posed. It arrives in April, about the IGth ; and, separating 

 into pairs, takes up its residence in the inland marshes, 

 where it breeds, and remains until its departure for the 

 South, about the middle of October. Early in May the sea- 

 son of incubation commences. The nest is constructed of 

 pieces of straw and weed, arranged in a large pile, and hol- 

 lowed to the depth of an inch or more : it is usually placed 

 in a tussock of grass, or beneath a piece of turf. A speci- 

 men which I found in Dedham meadows was built beneath 

 some thick cranberry-vines, and I have known of others 

 being placed in small brier patches ; but generally the 

 fabric is built in an open meadow, usually on an elevated 

 tussock in a boggy tract of ground. The eggs vary from 

 five to eight or ten in number : their form is almost always 

 an exact ovoidal. Their color is a yellow-drab, with a faint- 

 olivaceous tint, different from the color of any of our other 

 Rail's eggs. They vary in dimensions from 1.35 by 1 inch 

 (Quincy, Mass.) to 1.15 by .85 inch (Albion, Wis.). The 



