2o8 DAVENPORT ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



it as a "very abundant. migrant and rare summer resident in Lee 

 county." 



In Winnebago and Hancock counties the Sora is particularly 

 abundant, there being scarcely a sedge-grown slough which does 

 not harbor several pairs during the breeding season. In early 

 May I have found the Soras so tame that the}^ could hardly be 

 made to fly by wading after them as they tried to hide in the thin 

 grass, with short, stubbj^ tails bobbing nervously as they walked, 

 and standing erect when they stood still. 



J. Eugene Law took twenty-seven sets of the Sora near Lake 

 Mills (Winnebago) in the spring of 1893. June 7, 1892, I found 

 about a dozen nests, containing from three to eleven eggs, all 

 placed in clumps of saw-grass around the edge of a slough, 

 about where the water-line began, outside of the area of rushes 

 and reeds. Sometimes the nest is placed in shallow water. It is 

 built by piling up short bits of rushes or cat-tail leaves until a 

 dry platform is formed. Nests are frequently found with eggs in 

 all stages of incubation, from fresh eggs to these nearly ready to 

 hatch. Seventeen eggs is the largest number I have found in a 

 single nest. May 30, 1893, I found about a dozen nests contain- 

 ing from one to nine eggs. J^ine 22, 1894, caught a young Sora, 

 just hatched, and covered with jet-black down. 



During the nesting season the Soras are very noisy, particularly 

 towards evening, and frequently at night, making the marshes 

 resound with their weird and piercing notes. 



Subgenus Coturnicops Bonaparte. 



83. (215). Porsa7ia ?iovelforare?iS2S (Gtnel.). . Yellow Rail. 



The Yellow Rail or Crake is a rare species, occurring in sum- 

 mer. Its small size and secretive habits doubtless prevent its 

 being observed more frequently. The species was listed by J. A. 

 Allen (White's Geol. of Iowa, ii, 426), and John Krider states 

 that "it breeds in Iowa, where I found its nest with eight eggs" 

 (Forty Years' Notes, 69). Keyes and Williams give it as an oc- 

 casional in Iowa, frequenting the prairie sloughs (Birds of Iowa, 

 1889, 121). 



County records: Blackhawk— "has been taken once in Black- 

 hawk county. The bird never seems to take flight when pur- 

 sued, but may be captured with the hands" (Peck). Dickinson — 



