NORTH AMERICAN MARSH BIRDS 307 



Plumages. — The downy young sora is completely covered with 

 thick, glossy, black down, except on the chin, which is ornamented 

 by a small tuft of stiff, curly hairs of a "deep chrome" color. The 

 natal down is replaced, during July and August, by the juvenal plum- 

 age, in which the sexes are alike. In this the upper parts are much 

 like the adults, but the browns are paler, more olive, there is less 

 black, and there are fewer white spots and edgings ; there is no black 

 on the head, except a central black stripe on the crown and forehead; 

 the throat is dull white ; the breast and under parts are pale grayish 

 and buffy; and the flanks are barred with brownish black and buffy 

 white, instead of clear black and white, as in the adult. A nearly 

 complete molt of the contour plumage, in varying amounts in differ- 

 ent individuals and at various times between August and December, 

 produces the first winter plumage, in which the sexes begin to differ- 

 entiate. I have seen this molt in progress as early as August 20 and 

 as late as December 24. In this plumage a few black feathers or 

 restricted black areas are acquired on throat and face, with varying 

 amounts of slate gray on head and breast. Some birds become much 

 like adults, while others remain in a decidedly juvenal plumage all 

 winter, and even through March. Usually a first prenuptial molt of 

 the contour plumage produces, in March or even earlier, a nuptial 

 plumage which is nearly adult. A complete molt, between July and 

 September, makes the young bird indistinguishable from the adult. 



Adults have an incomplete prenuptial molt, involving only the 

 contour plumage, between January and March, and a complete post- 

 nuptial molt of all the plumage in summer, between July and Sep- 

 tember. The two seasonal plumages are aUke, except that in spring 

 the black stripe down the throat is broader and unbroken. The 

 female is much like the male, but the black in the head is duller and 

 more restricted; the mantle is usually more spotted with white; and 

 all the colors are less intense. 



Food. — Referring to the food of this species Doctor Gibbs (1899) 

 writes : 



The ortolan or sora rail feeds largely upon the small mollusks of the marsh, 

 and at times many of these minute shells may be found in the crops of the birds. 

 Neuropterous insects, those belonging to the order in which the dragon fly is 

 embraced, form a good share of their food. These insects are aquatic, like the 

 mosquito, in their earlier forms of development. This rail, like the others, 

 also feeds to a limited extent on vegetable substances, and especially on a par- 

 ticular kind of seed in late summer, which I have been unable to identify. One 

 authority, Cook, in his "Birds of Michigan," gives reptiles as the food of the 

 rails. This is undoubtedly incorrect, as I have yet to learn of reliable instances 

 where rails feed on reptiles, and my readers may readily see that the make-up 

 of these birds does not admit of their tearing snakes, frogs, and turtles to pieces. 

 The nearest that these marsh birds come to feeding on reptiles is when an 

 occasional small tadpole is gobbled up. A captive rail of this species, which I 



