538 PORZANA CAROLINA, CAROLINA RAIL. 



by day, cannot be doubted. Their habit of skulking and hiding in the 

 almost inaccessible places they frequent renders them difficult of ob- 

 servation, and they are usually considered rarer than they really are. 

 During the spring migration they seem to pass more swiftly and secretly 

 than in the fall, when, their ranks recruited by the summer's broods, 

 they become more noticeable. Some, like the Clapper Rail {B. longi- 

 rosiris), are almost exclusively maritime, and never quit the salt-marshes; 

 others, as the Fresh-water Marsh Hen {B. elegans of Audubon), of which 

 the present species is a perfect miniature in size, are generally distrib- 

 uted in the interior. The Virginia Rail extends across the continent ; 

 it is strictly a bird of passage, proceeding to and somewhat beyond our 

 northernmost States, and returning in the fall. At the approach of cold 

 weather it retires still further southward. Still, numbers breed in vari- 

 ous latitudes within our limits. 1 have not myself met with the nest 

 of this species. It is described as a slightly hollowed platform of mat- 

 ted grass and reeds, placed in a tussock of grass or directly on the 

 ground, in the interior of secluded bogs and morasses. The eggs, of 

 which a large number are before me, are eight or ten in number. They 

 are exactly like those of the Elegant and Clapper Rails, only much 

 smaller, measuring about 1.25 by 0.95. The groundcolor distinguishes 

 them from those of the Sora, which, of about the same size and shape, 

 always show a shade of soiled greenish or olive-drab. 



PORZANA CAROLINA, (Linn.) Cab. 



Carolina Rail; Sora; "Ortolau." 



EaUtis caroUmis, Linn., Syst. Nat. i, 1766, 263.— Gm., Svst. Nat. i, 1788, 715.— Bp., Syn. 

 1828, No. 272.— Dough., Cab. N. H. i, 1830, 206\ pi. 18.— Sw. & Rich., F. B. A. 

 ii, 1831, 403.— AuD., Oru. Biog. iii, 1835, 251 ; v, 1839, 572; pi. 233. 



Eallus {Crex) carolhms, Bp., Obs. Wils. 1H25, No. 230.— Nutt., Mau. ii, 1834, 209. 



Gallinula Carolina, Lath., lud. Ore. ii, 1790, 771 (Edw., 144 ; Briss., v, 541 ; Gates., i, 

 pi. 70 ; Arct. Zool. ii, 491 ; Gen. Syu. v, 262).— Sab., Frank. Journ. 690. 



Ortygometra Carolina, Bp., List, 1838, 53.— AuD., Syn. 1839, 213 ; B. Am. v, 1842, 145, pi. 

 306.— GossE, B. Jam. 1847, 371.— GiR., B. L. I. 1844, 201.- LiSoT., Ois. Trinidad, 

 493.— WooDH., Sitgr. Rep. 1853, 101.— Putn., Pr. Ess. Inst, i, 1856, 216.— Reinh., 

 Ibis, iii, 1861, 12 (Greenland). 



Porzana Carolina, Bd., B. N. A. 1858, 749 ; and of all late U. S. writers. — GUNDL., J. f. O. 

 iv, 1856, 428 (Cuba).— Scl., Ibis, i, 1859, 230 (Guatemala).— Newt., ibid. 260 

 (Santa Cruz).— Dress., ibid. 1866, 40 (Texas).— Hayd., Rep. 1862, 175 (Nio- 

 brara).— Scl., P. Z. S. 1861, 81 (Jamaica).— Scl. & Salv., P. Z. S. 1864, 179, 

 372 (Mexico); 1868, 450 (critical); 1869, 252 (Venezuela); 1870, 219 (Vera- 

 gua). — Bry., Pr. Bost. Soc. 1866 (Porto Rico).— Lawr., Ann. Lye. N. Y. vii, 479 

 (Panama).— SuND., Ofv. Vet. Ak. 587 (St. Bartholomew).— Coues, Key, 273. 



AramidcH {Mustelirallas) Carolina, Gray, Hand-list, iii, 1871, 61, No. 10431. 



Crex Carolina, Hart., Br. Birds, 1872, 152 (accidental in Great Britain ; cf. Newt., P. Z. 

 S. 1865, 196 ; Eyre, Zool. 186.5, 9540 ; Kennedy, B. of Berks and Bucks, 196). 



Ballus stolidus, Vieill., Ency. Meth. 1823, p. 1071. 



Hab. — Entire temperate North America ; especially abundant along the Atlantic 

 coast during the migrations. Breeds from the Middle districts northward. Winters 

 in the Southern States and beyond. South to Venezuela. Various West Indian Islands. 

 Greenland. Accidental in Europe. v 



Lieutenant Warren^s Expedition. — 4875, Yankton Camp. 



Later Expeditions. — 61646, Ogden, Utah. 



Not obtained by Captain Raynolds' Expedition. 



The Sora does not appear to occur anywhere in the Missouri region 

 in such numbers as it does along the Atlantic coast, probably on ac- 

 count of lack of the peculiar resorts best suited to its wants. I observed 

 it migrating southward in September, along the Mouse River, in North- 

 ern Dakota, but it was not very abundant. It has not been much 

 noticed in the West, nor by any means throughout that portion of our 



