NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 293 



The males usually arrive at the breeding places a week or 10 days before the 

 females. They travel silently and by night, as I have ascertained by observing 

 them proceed singly and in a direct course, at a height of only a few feet, over 

 our broad rivers, or over level land, when their speed is such as is never mani- 

 fested by them under ordinary circumstances. Their movements can be easily 

 traced for 50 yards or so during nights of brilliant moonshine, when you see 

 them passing with a constant beat of the wings, in the manner of a green-winged 

 teal. 



This low flight in migration accounts for the fact that their dead 

 bodies are sometimes found under telegraph lines or under wire fences. 



Courtship. — Audubon (1840) was fortunate in witnessing the court- 

 ship dance of the Virginia rail, and thus describes it: 



The notes of the rail came loudly on my ear, and on moving toward the spot 

 whence they proceeded, I observed the bird exhibiting the full ardor of his pas- 

 sion. Now with open wings raised over its body, it ran around its beloved, 

 opening and flirting its tail with singular speed. Each time it passed before her, 

 it would pause for a m(unent, raise itself to the full stretch of its body and legs, 

 and bow to her with all the grace of a well-bred suitor of our own species. The 

 female also bowed in recognition, and at last, as the male came nearer and nearer 

 in his circuits, yielded to his wishes, on which the pair flew off in the manner 

 of house pigeons, sailing and balancing their bodies on open wings until out of 

 sight. During this exhibition, the male emitted a mellow note, resembling the 

 syllables "cuckoe, cuckoe," to which the female responded with the kind of lisping 

 sound uttered by young birds of the species when newly hatched. 



The courtship song of the Virginia rail suggests at a distance the 

 sounds made by striking an anvil with a hammer which rebounds. 

 If the bird is near at hand the sound suggests the clicking of a tele- 

 graph instrument. The song has a peculiar vibrant, metalHc quality 

 and may bo written down "Jcid-iclc, Tcid-ick, Jcid-icJc,"oT again "cut, cut, 

 cvi-ah, cut-ah." It is sometimes repeated many times and may be 

 heard at night as well as by day, for this bird, although largely diur- 

 nal in its habits, is often abroad during the night hours. 



Nesting. — -The nest of the Virginia rail is cunningly concealed and 

 is almost always built in a fresh- water marsh or near fresh water. Occa- 

 sionally, however, it is found in the upper reaches of salt marshes that 

 are sometimes overflowed by storm tides. Although it usually selects 

 a dryer place in the marsh than the sora, yet it not infrequently 

 builds its nest over water. One such nest I found in an extensive 

 growth of cat-tails in water 6 inches deep on the edge of a pond. 

 The nest was slung a foot from the water, was S inches in diameter 

 and was composed of coarse grasses and cat-tails. Often, even in 

 water, the nest rests on the mud and is composed of a great mass of 

 grasses and reeds, forming sometimes a towerlike structure 7 or 8 

 inches high. J. A. Weber (1909) describes such a nest that was — 



in the center of a circular bunch of growing cat-tails. It consisted of a mass of 

 cat-tail blades and stems, placed layer upon layer, the foundation resting on the 



