286 RALLID/E I RAILS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



marshes through the countless covered ways among the 

 reeds, stopping to cry " all's well " as they pass on, or 

 to answer the challenge of a distant watchman. That 

 they feed by night, as well as by day, cannot be doubted. 

 Their habit of skulking and hiding in the almost in- 

 accessible places they frequent renders them difficult of 

 observation, and they are usually considered rarer than 

 they really are. During the spring migration they seem 

 to pass more swiftly and secretly than in the fall, when, 

 their ranks recruited by the summer's broods, they 

 become more noticeable." 



CAROLINA RAIL, OR SORA. 

 PORZANA CAROLINA (Linn.} Vieill. 



Chars. Rails of this genus differ from the foregoing (Rallus} in 

 having the bill short, straight, and quite stout at base ; they are 

 also smaller birds. Above, adult, olive-brown, varied with black, 

 and with numerous sharp white streaks and specks ; flanks, 

 axillars and lining of wings barred with white and blackish ; 

 belly pale, crissum rufescent ; face and central line of throat 

 black, the rest of the throat, line over eye, and the breast, more 

 or less intensely slate-gray, the sides of the breast usually also 

 with some obsolete whitish speckling or barring. Young with- 

 out these black and slate-colored areas, the throat whitish, the 

 breast brown. Length, 8.00-9.00 ; extent, 12.00-13.00 ; wing, 

 4.00-4.50; tail about 2.00 ; bill, 0.67-0.75 ; tarsus, 1.33; middle 

 toe and claw 1.67. 



A very abundant summer resident in suitable local- 

 ities, being the best known and most equably dis- 

 tributed of the New England Rallidce, arriving in April 

 or May and departing usually in September, though some 

 linger into October. The habits are too well-known to 

 require description. 



