310 BULLETIN 135, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



while pursuing his mate and sometimes a "cut-cut-cutta" not unlike the song of 

 the Virginia rail, but decidedly less loud and vibrant. In addition to all these 

 notes both sexes have a variety of short, sharp cries which they give when star- 

 tled by any sudden noise. 



Rev. J. H. Langille (1884) gives it as " queep-eejj-ip-ip-ip-ip-ip-ip, or 

 quaite, peep, peep, Jcuk, Tcuk, huk — the first two or three syllables in 

 long-drawn, coaxing tones, and the remaining syllables shorter and 

 more hurried." I have seen this rail utter a plaintive note, which 

 sounded like " peet-it-wheet,'" orasharper call note, like " peeJc or pucJcJ' 



Both soras and Virginia rails often breed in the same marsh and 

 in close proximity, but Miss Sherman's notes indicate that they are 

 not alwa3^s as friendly as they might be. In a marsh where both 

 species were under daily observation, she saw the soras drive the 

 Virginias before them and frequently, but not always, the latter fled 

 upon the approach of the former. 



Fall. — During the late summer and early fall, when the seeds of 

 the wild rice, wild oats, and other aquatic plants are ripening and 

 falling, the soras, greatly increased in numbers with their large broods 

 of young, desert their breeding grounds and gather in great multi- 

 tudes in the more open marshes on the rice-covered borders of tlie lakes 

 and streams, where they feast and fatten on their favorite food. At 

 such times a sudden noise, such as the report of a gun or the splash of a 

 paddle or a stone thrown into the grass, will start a chorus of cries 

 ringing from one end of the marsh to the other. In such places they 

 remain until driven farther south by the first frosts. They are very 

 sensitive to cold and are good weather prophets. After a frosty 

 night, in late September or early October, a marsh, which was teem- 

 ing with rails the day before, may be found entirely deserted, every 

 bird having departed during the night. They have started on their 

 autumn wanderings, their fall migration. 



Mr. Forbush (1914) says: 



The little wings which erstwhile would hardly raise the birds above the grass 

 tops now carry them high and far. Some cross the seas to distant Bermuda, 

 and they occasionally alight on vessels hundreds of miles at sea. They have 

 been taken on the western mountains even as higli as 12,500 feet, in the sage- 

 brush of the desert, and on the cliffs of Panama. 



This really remarkable migration is thus described by Prof. W. W. 

 Cooke (1914): 



The flight of the sora is slow and labored but some individuals travel more 

 miles between tlic summer and winter homes than almost any other rails in the 

 Western Hemisphere. The birds breeding in the Mackenzie Valley do not 

 winter farther north than the Gulf coast and hence must travel at least 2,500 

 miles during their fall migration. The species passes in winter to about lati- 

 tude 5°S., and as none of these South American birds nest south of latitude 

 :i5° N. the migration route can not possibly be shorter than 3,000 miles and 

 may be much longer. 



