142 RAILS, GALLINULES, AND COOTS. 



few winter. Sing Sing, tolerably common S. R. to Sept. 29. Cambridge, 

 common S. E., Apl. 20 to Oct. 15, 



Nest^ of grasses, on the ground in marshes. Eggs, six to twelve, pale huffy 

 white, spotted and speckled with rufous-hrown, 1-26 x -9(3. 



In almost any extensive fresh or brackish marsh, especially if it 

 has beds of cat-tail flags or scattered thickets of low bushes and briers, 

 one may hear in May and June, particularly in the early morning, late 

 afternoon, or during cloudy weather, a succession of grunting sounds 

 not unlike those of a hungry pig. Although by no means loud, they 

 have a penetrating quality which makes them carry to a considerable 

 distance ; and they are apt to attract attention even when, as is usually 

 the case, they mingle with the songs of innumerable Red-winged 

 Blackbirds, Marsh Wrens, and other swamp-loving birds. It is no 

 easy matter to trace them to their author, but if you are persevering 

 and at the same time fortunate, you may at length discover him skulk- 

 ing under a bush or behind a tuft of grass. He is the Virginia Rail, 

 an odd-looking bird about the size of a Snipe. If you remain motion- 

 less, he may presently come out into fairer view and walk slowly around 

 the edge of some pool, lifting and putting down his large feet with 

 curious deliberation, cocking up his absurdly short tail at each step, 

 and every now and then stopping to thrust his bill deep into the ooze 

 in search of food. As he pauses to look at you, you are struck by his 

 half-quizzical, half-sinister expression, due, no doubt, to the fact that 

 his eyes are blood-red and deeply sunk in their long, narrow head. 

 Startle him by some sudden movement, and he will do one of three 

 things — dart back into cover as swiftly as a frightened mouse, skip 

 across the pool over the floating leaves of the water plants, using both 

 wings and feet, or rise with feebly fluttering wings and hanging legs 

 to fly only a few rods before dropping beyond some intervening screen 

 of grass or bushes. In any case you are not likely to find him again 

 on this occasion. 



Besides the grunting sound, the Virginia Rail utters during the 

 breeding season, especially at night and in lowering weather, a gut- 

 tural cut, cutta-cufta-cutta, often repeated at brief intervals for hours 

 in succession. This cry appears to be peculiar to the male, and is, no 

 doubt, his love song. When heard at a distance of only a few yards it 

 has a vibrating, almost unearthly quality, and seems to issue from the 

 ground directly beneath one's feet. The female, when anxious about 

 her eggs or young, calls ki-ki-ki in low tones, and klu much like a 

 Flicker. The young of both sexes in autumn give, when startled, a 

 short, explosive kep or kik, closely similar to that of the Carolina Rail, 



William Brewster. 



