THE OOLOGIST 



309 



eggs and one black, little Rail, still 

 damp. Nearby were two broken egg 

 shells of birds already hatched. About 

 50 yards off I flushed a Virginia from 

 her nest built in a thick clump of 

 marsh grasses and about 8 inches 

 above shallow water. It held ten eggs. 

 Some 75 yards away. White came on 

 still another nest of the Virginia Rail 

 with ten far incubated eggs. It was 

 built over shallow water about 1 foot 

 up in the thick marsh grasses. The 

 bird was seen nearby. All the nests 

 were compactly made of dry marsh 

 grasses and shreds of flags. The 

 Rails usually run off and fly up when 

 you are still several yards distant. 

 We saw one or two Swamp Sparrows 

 but found no nests, though two of the 

 Song Sparrows were found with four 

 young and five eggs. Several Red- 

 wings' nests were found with from one 

 to four eggs and I collected one set 

 of the latter number. In a dead tree 

 near the swamp we found a Red Head- 

 ed Woodpecker's nest 25 feet up with 

 j^oung." 



In 1910 I found a number of nests 

 here and secured two sets of 9 and 11 

 eggs, but all nests found were Sora's. 

 I also detected and killed a twenty 

 pound Snapping Turtle while in the 

 act of robbing a Rail's nest. David 

 narrower also found several nests and 

 one of his sets held an unmistakable 

 Sora's egg among a set of Virginia's. 

 The year of 1911 the birds were not 

 so common and we did not disturb 

 them though they were still in the 

 swamp as several were seen. 



The nests and eggs of the two spe- 

 cies seem unmistakably different to 

 me. The eggs of the Virginia are 

 much lighter, cream colored and 

 speckled with light buff and brown, 

 while the Soras have a harder shell 

 are much darker and covered more 

 with brownish and Olive blotches. 



The nests of the Sora are more com- 

 pact and deeper, and while they use 

 flags and cat-tails more, the Virginia 

 seems to prefer the dry Marsh grass. 



The Soras usually nest directly over 

 water and in the deeper portions of 

 the swamp, while the Virginias often 

 nest in parts which are barely wet. 

 Both species are often very solicitious 

 about the nests and very hard to see 

 from above. The Sora seems to start 

 setting with the first egg as in a set 

 of ten, some will be fresh and others 

 in all stages of incubation. In one 

 set of eleven which I took, incubation 

 ranged from fresh to nearly fully de- 

 velojied. This also occurs in the sets 

 of Virginia but it is less pronounced. 

 From the dates above, it may be seen 

 that nidification in some instances 

 must start by May 10th, about a week 

 after the arrival of the birds. The spe- 

 cies seem to be fairly uniform in their 

 nesting habits and about May 2S-3()th 

 seems to be the time at which the ma- 

 jority have fresh sets. As with the 

 Clapper Rail and Florida Gallinule, 

 there seems to be a tendency to build 

 sham nests as a large number are 

 never finished or laid in. I have found 

 several nests which have been pillag- 

 ed by Crows, Muskrats and Snapping 

 Turtles, but their natural enemies 

 seem to be few. 



There are numerous swamps in 

 Pennsylvania suited to these birds and 

 I feel sure that rigid search will show 

 them much more common than we are 

 inclined to believe at the present time. 

 Richard C. Harlow. 



