50 THE OREGON NATURALIST 



NESTING OF THE SORA RAIL 



Some thirteen years have passed 

 away since the end of July, 1882, when 

 I first detected the presence, and dis- 

 covered the nest of a Sora, or Carolina 

 Rail in some water-ponds on Wildwood ; 

 and wrote an account of the matter, 

 that was afterwards published in the 

 last issue of the "Canadian Naturalist 

 and Sportsman." Since then a num- 

 ber of the nests of the Species have 

 been observed on the same farm, and 

 other places in this vicinity. I have 

 noted that their nesting period extents 

 from the first week of May, to the end 

 of July. The set often eggs in my re- 

 serve collection were taken fresh on the 

 12th of July, 1893. In the Spring of 

 1894, three nests of these birds tliat 

 were quite near to each other, in a 

 small pond overgrown with willows 

 and sedge-grass, contained in the sets 

 eight, ten and twelve eggs. But it is 

 of a nest of this bird, seen in the mid- 

 dle of July, of the past season, that I 

 purpose now to speak. Its situation 

 was on the edge of a water pond in a 

 large tuft of sedge-grass, on Wildwood, 

 and as I was engaged in cutting some 

 grass a few rods off, my attention was 

 arrested by the loud out cries, and pe- 

 culiar actions of a female Sora Rail, 

 who was evidently engaged in a des- 

 perate contest with some enem3' of an 

 other species of animal, whose foim I 

 then failed to see, but which I after- 

 wards had reason to believe was a 

 snake, one of the worst enemies of all 

 biids. 



The mother Rail was not onl\' mak- 

 ing a large outcry' but by leaps and 

 the beating of het wings against a 



large bunch of sedge grass, was evi- 

 dently attempting to drive off some 

 enemy from that position. On my ap- 

 proach to the scene of conflict the Rail 

 retired to a .short distance, still utter- 

 ing lond notes and evidently very an- 

 gry. Then I discovered its nest in 

 the tuft, which then contained five 

 eggs, one of which was of small size. 

 I returned to work and the Rail re- 

 newed her contest with her concealed 

 enemy, and she was greeted b}' the 

 calls of her mate a short distance off, 

 and by the peculiar kitten-like notes 

 of some other creature, which I after- 

 wards took to be those of a young Rail. 

 I then approached the nesting place 

 again to investigate the cause of the 

 birds warfare, but I could see no other 

 object, as the grass was dense around. 

 A closer examination of the nest 

 showed that the eggs were far ad- 

 vanced in incubation and pieces of the 

 shells of eggs indicated that some of 

 the set had already hatched out; then 

 down to one side of the nest I found 

 the body of a young Rail that had 

 just been hatched out, and appar- 

 entl}' just killed, by being pulled 

 violently through the lough stalks of 

 grass; and having its head crushed. 

 This was covered with black down, 

 and it had a spot of crimson on the 

 throat, and a yellow bill. Another 

 look at the nest some hours after 

 showed that three of the eggs were 

 missing, but the peeping of the young 

 in the two large indicated their pres- 

 ence at the foot of the tuft in which 

 the nest was placed. I returned them 

 to the nest and cleared the grass 

 around. 



The next daj- one of the.se was luiss- 



