BIRDS FOUND IN BAYOUS AND MARSHES 103 
Geographical Distribution: North America ; south in winter to northern 
parts of South America. 
Breeding Range: Northern United States, northward, including Cali- 
fornia and Oregon. 
Breeding Season: May and June. 
Nest: Of grass ; on the ground, in a marshy place. 
Eggs: 7 to 14; cream-color, marked with cinnamon and lilac. Size 
1.26 x 0.90. 
THE Sora Rail breeds commonly in California in 
swamps about Los Angeles and other suitable localities. 
Unlike the clapper rail, it prefers fresh-water sloughs, 
where it hides among the tall rushes. The baby Rails 
are fluffy little black chicks with absurdly large feet, and 
necks too long for their fat little bodies. Almost as 
soon as hatched they run about among the grass of the 
drier parts, sometimes being taken away from the water 
to an adjacent meadow, where they soon learn to snap 
up bugs and small grasshoppers. Like all the rail 
family, the Soras are most musical at dawn and dusk, 
when their queer weird notes make the marshland seem 
an uncanny spot. In the South this species is sold as a 
game bird under the name of ortolan, and is much liked 
by epicures, though its thin little body has, not without 
reason, given rise to the saying “ As thin asa rail.” It 
is abundant on migrations, flying at night and resting 
wherever it happens to be during the day, even in the 
noisy streets of Chicago. In these circumstances it 
seems stupid and confused. I have captured it without 
difficulty while it was resting, as it squats on the ground, 
making absolutely no effort to escape. 
Mr. Frank Chapman writes of this species: ‘The 
Sora’s summer home is in fresh-water marshes, where, 
