286 The IVater-fowl Family 



from one resting-place to another occur at night. 

 Places devoid of birds one day abound with 

 them the next. Of their manner of travelling 

 we know but little, but they have been seen 

 through a telescope on clear, moonlight nights. 

 That the flight must be well sustained is shown 

 by the fact that the birds regularly frequent 

 the islands of the West Indies, and there are 

 interesting instances of enormous flights of Caro- 

 lina rail suddenly appearing on the marshes of 

 Bermuda after southwesterly gales, arriving fat 

 and in good condition, evidently well prepared 

 for an ocean voyage. Undoubtedly the marshes 

 of northern South America are among the win- 

 tering-places. In the spring they appear in the 

 favorite haunts, along the coast and inland, in 

 the same mysterious way, generally late in April 

 or early May, breeding abundantly on the marshes 

 of the interior in Wisconsin, northern Illinois, and 

 the prairie states, as far west as eastern Oregon. 

 The sora rail has been supposed to breed between 

 the sixty-second and forty-second parallels. I 

 found the birds south of Tampico, Mexico, in 

 May, 1 90 1, and have no doubt they were breeding. 

 They kept in the high grass close to the water, 

 and we only flushed them occasionally, when 

 walking through ; but there was hardly a suitable 

 place on the islands in the large lagoon between 

 Tuxpan and Tampico, where I did not see them. 



