60 BIRDS OF OHIO. 
The Sora is a fairly common inhabitant of the marshes 
and wet meadows wherever they occur in the state. It ap- 
pears to be a little less numerous south than north. It fre- 
quently nests in wet meadows or in the tall grass bordering 
ditches. During the migrations it not infrequently strikes 
buildings or wires or other obstructions, and is either killed 
or hurt or dazed and is brought to notice more frequently 
than any of the other rails in this way. One that had been 
injured in the breast was found in the court of Peters Hall, 
Oberlin, when the building was opened in the morning. 
There had been no open doors or windows, nor any broken 
window where it might have entered. Its appearance there 
could not be accounted for unless it had squeezed under a 
door in the basement. 
The Sora reaches Oberlin shortly after the first of May, 
according to my records. It probably arrives earlier but is 
unnoticed at first. I have no records of its departure south- 
ward, but since the date of capture of the one mentioned 
above was October 23, 1896, it seems likely that the depart- 
ure is not far from that date. 
3. (215.) PorZANA NOVEBORACENSIS (Gmel.). 234. 
Yellow Rail. 
Synonyms: Rallus noveboracensis, Fulica noveboracensis. 
Yellow-breasted Rail, Upland Rail, Yellow Crake, Little 
Yellow Rail. 
Kirtland, Ohio Geol. Surv., 1838, 165, 185. 
This little rail is reported as rare in the six *counties 
where it has been found. There is good reason to believe 
that it is much more numerous than the records show, be- 
cause it is both so small and so hard to flush from its reedy 
retreats that we almost never see it. Systematic search 
should reveal it in many localities where it has never been 
seen. 
I can find no records of nests actually found within the 
state, but the dates upon which many specimens have been 
found clearly indicate that this rail breeds in the northern 
part of the state at least. 
*Ashtabula, Cuyahoga, Erie, Hamilton, Lorain, Portage. 
