Rails, Gallinules, Coots 



suppose. It is only at high tide along the coast that a boat may 

 enter their marshy retreats far enough to flush any birds. The 

 rest, secure in the tall sedges, run in and out of the tall grass on 

 well beaten paths and through aisles of their own making without 

 giving a hint as to their whereabouts. This bird, like the king 

 rail, is frequently called a fresh water, marsh, or mud hen ; not 

 because it eschews salt water, but because, even near the sea, it 

 is apt to find out those spots in the bay where fresh water springs 

 bubble up rather than the brackish. Only the bobolinks and red- 

 winged blackbirds, feeding with them on wild oats or rice, the 

 swamp sparrows, marsh wrens, and other companions of the 

 morass, know how many rails are hidden among the bulrushes, 

 sedges, and bushes. 



During May, when a nest of grasses is built on the ground, 

 in a tussock that screens from six to twelve pale buff, brown 

 spotted eggs; and in June, when a brood of downy black chicks 

 comes out of the shell, the penetrating voice of the Virginia rail 

 incessantly calls out cut, cutta-cutta-cutta to his mate. "When 

 heard at a distance of only a few yards," says Brewster, " it has 

 a vibrating, almost unearthly quality, and seems to issue from 

 the ground directly beneath one's feet. The female, when 

 anxious about her eggs or young, calls ki-ki-ki in low tones, and 

 hiu much like a flicker. The young of both sexes in autumn 

 give, when startled, a short, explosive kep or kik, closely similar 

 to that of the Carolina rail." Still another sound is a succession 

 of pig-like grunts, made early in the morning, late in the after- 

 noon, or in cloudy weather. Confusing as are the notes of the 

 different rails, they must be learned if one is to know the shy 

 skulkers, that, unlike a good child, are so much more often heard 

 than seen. 



Sora 



(Por^ana Carolina) 



Called also: CAROLINA RAIL, OR CRAKE; COMMON RAIL; 

 "ORTOLAN"; SOREE; MUD HEN 



(Illustration facing p. 145) 

 Length % to 9. 50 inches. 



Male and Female "Above, olive brown varied with black and 

 gray; front of head, stripe on crown, and line on throat, 

 black ; side of head and breast ashy gray or slate ; sides of 



180 



