858 



SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — PALUDICOLM — RALLI. 



from the Middle States and corresponding latitudes northward, less common on Pacific than 

 Atlantic coast ; winters in Illinois, California, and Southern States, even to South America ; 



taken in Greenland and Europe 



'm^mi 



Via. GOO. — Carolina Rail. (From Lewis.) 



The eggs are spotted like those of the foregoing 



lialli, but are readily- 

 distinguished by their 

 strong drab ground- 

 color instead of the 

 white or creamy and 

 pale butty of the for- 

 mer. They are rather 

 smaller than those of 

 It. rirginianus, and 

 perhaps more obtuse, 

 measuring ubout 1.20 

 by 0.90 ; the number 

 Aaries from 8 to J 5. 

 This is the Rail of 

 sportsmen. It is also 

 called sora or soree ; 

 the word is colloquial 

 and local ; soree seems 

 to be the older form ; 

 it is used by Thomas 

 Jefterson, and goes 

 back to Catesby, 1731, 



but sora is commoner now, though I have always heard both spoken ; origin and meaning 

 unknown. The word ortolan has a curious connection with this .species. It is Italian and 

 French, equal to the Latin Jiortulanus, relating to a garden: the true Ortolan is Emberiza 

 liortulana, a European Bunting, esteemed a great delicacy by gourmets ; and our Crake has 

 been called "ortolan" for no better reason than that it is also edible and sapid! The same 

 name is frequently applied to the Bobolink or Reed-bird, Dolichonyx oryzivorus, because it is 

 found abundantly in the same marshes in fall, and sells in the same restaurants as the same 

 bird as tlie Rail, the two being brought in together by gunners. 



P. noveboracen'sis. (Low Lat. of Novehoracum: i. e. New York.) Yellow Crake or 

 Rail. Adult ^ 9 • Above, streaked with blackish and brownish-yellow, thickly marked with 

 narrow white semicircles and transverse bars. Below, pale brownish-yellow fading on belly, 

 deepest on breast, where many feathers are dark tipped ; flanks blackish with numerous white 

 bars; crissum varied with black, white, and rufous. Lining of wings and their secondaries 

 white. A brownish-yellow superciliary line, and dark transocular stripe. Small : Length 

 6.00-7.00; wing about 3.25; tail 1.50; bill 0..50; tarsus 0.87; middle toe and claw 1.12. 

 Eastern North America chiefly, not abundant; N. to Nova Scotia and Hudson's Bay, but sel- 

 dom observed in New England N. of Massachusetts, or W. of the Mississippi Valley from 

 Texas to Minnesota, though it has been taken in Utah, Nevada, and California; but it is not 

 common, is very secretive like other Rails, readily eludes observation, and its distribution may 

 be more general than it is known to be ; it winters in the Southern States, the Bermudas, and 

 Cuba. Eggs about 6, perhaps up to 12, warm, buffy-brown, marked mostly at the great end 

 witli reddisli -chocolate dots and spots; 1.15 X 0.85 to 1.05 X 0.80; shape as in the foregoing. 

 P. jainaicen'sis. (Of Jamaica.) Little Black Crake or Rail. Adult ^ 9 = Upper 

 parts blackish, linely speckled and barred with white, hind neck and fore back dark chestnut, 

 with similar white markings. Head and under parts dark slate color, the lower belly, flanks, 



