NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 305 



the edge of a marshy island in a muddy pond, much overgrown with 

 cat-tail flags. We had to push our boat a long way into the low, 

 dead flags to find water shallow enough to wade in, but did not dis- 

 cover the nest until we returned later and happened to see it within 

 a foot of the boat. The nest contained 12 handsome eggs and was 

 placed in a little hummock among low, open, dead flags, where the 

 water was about knee-deep; it was built of dead flags, arranged in a 

 solid mass and dry on top; it was raised about 4 inches above the 

 water, and measured about 6 inches in diameter; the inner cav- 

 ity was about 3 inches wide by 2 inches deep. It was a typical cat- 

 tail nest in which some of the eggs were arranged in a second layer, 

 as they almost always are in a large set, so that the small body of 

 the bird can cover them all. 



In the prairie regions of North Dakota, Manitoba, and vSaskatch- 

 ewan we found numerous nests of both Virginia and sora rails, 

 around the borders of the sloughs or in wet, grassy meadows. The 

 nests of the sora were generally in deeper water and were more sub- 

 stantially built than those of the Virginia rail. They were sometimes 

 found in meadows where the grass was not very tall, but more often 

 they were better concealed in clumps of bulrushes (Scirpus laciiHris) 

 or flags. The nests were built up from 3 to 6 inches above the water 

 and were made of dead flags, bulrushes and dry grasses. 



A nest found by F. Sejmiour Hersey near Lake Winnipegosis, 

 Manitoba, on July 2, 1913, was placed in a clump of grass in a grassy 

 marsh; it was made entirely of green grass, with which the center of 

 the clump was entirely filled, and the rim of the nest was 10 inches 

 above the wet ground; it appeared to have been built upon the 

 remains of an old nest. The nest of the sora is usually more or less 

 concealed by a canopy of grass, reeds, or flags arched over it, espe- 

 cially if it is in an open situation, and there is often a runway, made 

 of the nesting material, leading up to it. 



Eggs. — The sora rail lays from 6 to 18 eggs, the extremes being 

 very unusual and the average numbers running from 10 to 12. The 

 shape is ovate and the shell is smooth and glossy. The eggs are more 

 richly colored, more heavily spotted and more glossy than those of 

 the Virginia rail, with which this species is often associated. The 

 ground color is a rich buff, varying from "chamois" or "cinnamon 

 buff" to "cream buff," "ivory yellow," or even "pale olive buff." 

 They are irregularly spotted with browns and drabs, "auburn," 

 "chestnut brown," "russet," "snuff brown" and shades of "cinna- 

 mon-drab" and "ecru drab." The measurements of 90 eggs average 



31.5 by 22.5 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 



34.6 by 23.5, 31 by 24.6, 28 by 22, and 30 by 20.6 millimeters. 

 Young. — The period of incubation is said to be 14 days; it is shared 



by both sexes and is nearly continuous from the time that the first 



