THE YELLOW RAIL. 475 
average size is about 1.26 by 1.92 (Cambridge and Need- 
ham, Mass.). 
After leaving New England and other northern breeding- 
places, this species congregates in great numbers on the 
shores of some of the southern streams and bays, where 
they furnish much sport to the gunners of those localities. 
PORZANA NOVEBORACENSIS. 
The Yellow Rail. 
Ortygometra Noveboracensis, Audubon. Birds Am., V. (1842) 152. 
Rallus Noveboracensis Audubon. Orn. Biog., IV. (1838) 251. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Entire upper parts ochre-yellow, with longitudinal wide stripes of brownish-black 
and transverse narrow stripes of white; neck and breast reddish ochre-yellow; 
many feathers tipped with brown; middle of abdomen white; flanks and ventral 
region with wide transverse bands of dark reddish-brown and narrow bands of 
white; under tail coverts rufous, with small spots of white; under wing coverts 
white; iris hazel. 
Total length (from tip of bill to end of tail), about six inches; wing, three and a 
quarter; tail, one and three-quarters inches. 
This beautiful bird is an exceedingly rare spring and 
autumn visitor in New England. I have, in a number of 
years’ shooting, been able to procure but two; and have 
not heard of more than two or three more being taken here. 
It has all the characteristics of the other species, but prefers 
the fresh-water meadows to the salt marshes. Dr. Richard- 
son, in his “ Northern Zoology,” says, “This elegant bird 
is an inhabitant of the marshes on the coast of Hudson’s 
Bay, near the mouth of the Severn River, from the middle 
of May to the end of September. It never flies above 
sixty yards at a time, but runs with great rapidity among 
the long grass near the shores. In the morning and evening, 
it utters a note which resembles the striking of a flint and 
steel: at other times, it makes a shrieking noise. It builds 
no nest, but lays from ten to sixteen white eggs among the 
grass.” 
1 The specimens that I procured were found in fresh-water meadows early in 
September. 
