146 MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



52. Porzana Carolina (Linn). 

 SoRA. Carolina Rail. 



Summer resident, locally abundant. 



SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



April 14, 1890, one heard, Fresh Pond Swamps, W. Faxon. 



April 1 5 — October 3 1 . 

 December 3, 1898, one ad. male' taken, Pout Pond, A. H. Hathaway. 



NESTING DATES. 



May 20 — 31. 



Of the Carolina Rail Nuttall,''^ writing in 1834, says: "In the vicinity of 

 Cambridge, (Mass.) a few, as a rarity only, are now and then seen in the course 

 of the autumn, in the Zizania patches which border the outlet of Fresh Pond ; 

 but none are either known or suspected to breed in any part of this state, 

 where they are, as far as I can learn, every where uncommon." 



It is difficult to discredit this testimony, for Nuttall was a close observer, 

 and especially keen and accurate in discriminating bird notes. Even had he 

 overlooked the Sora in autumn, he could scarcely have done so in spring and 

 early summer when its loud and persistent calls are among the most prominent 

 and characteristic sounds of the places which it inhabits. The chances are, 

 therefore, that he was correct in thinking that the species did not then breed, 

 nor perhaps occur numerously at any season, in the immediate neighborhood of 

 Cambridge. 



However the case may have stood prior to 1834, the Sora was certainly 

 common enough in and about Cambridge some thirty years later, both in the 

 breeding season and in autumn. Indeed between 1864 and 1870 I found not 

 only the birds, but their nests and eggs as well, in the Fresh Pond Swamps ; in 

 a narrow strip of meadow bordering a ditch at the western base of the hill on 

 which the old Cambridge reservoir formerly stood ; on a grassy, floating island in 

 the little pond just behind Mount Auburn ; and at Rock Meadow. Several of 

 these localities, it will be observed, were favorite haunts of Nuttall. 



' In the collection of O. A. Lothrop. 



2 T. Nuttall, Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and of Canada. The Water 

 Birds, 1834, 213. 



