120 BIKDS OF ONTARIO. 



GENUS PORZANA VIEILLOT. 



SUBGENUS PORZANA. 

 PORZANA CAROLINA (LiNN.). 



82. Sora. (214) 



Above, olive-brown, varied with black, with numerous sharp white streaks 

 and specks ; flanks, axillars and lining of wings, barred with white and blackish ; 

 belly, whitish; crissum, rufescent. Adult : With the face and central line of 

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

 more or less intensely slate-gray, the sides of the breast usually with some 

 obsolete whitish barring and speckling. Young : Without the black, the 

 throat whitish, the breast brown. Lengtb.,/8-9 ; wing, 4-4^ ; tail, about 2 ; bill, 

 -f ; tarsus,. 1|; middle toe and claw, 1. 



HAB. Temperate North America, but most common in the Eastern Pro- 

 vince, breeding chiefly northward. South to West Indies and northern South 

 America. 



Builds a rude nest of grass and rushes on the ground near the water. 



Eggs, eight to ten, dull drab, marked with reddish-brown. 



Here, as elsewhere, the Sora is the most numerous of the Rail 

 family, and is found breeding in all suitable places throughout the 

 country. Many also pass up north, and when they return in the 

 fall, accompanied by their young, they linger in the marshes along the 

 southern border till they are found swarming everywhere. They are 

 very sensitive to cold, and a sportsman may have good rail shooting 

 till late in the evening, but should a sharp frost set in during the 

 night, he may return in the morning and find that the birds have all 

 left. 



Many spend the summer in the North- West, but they are most 

 abundant in the Middle Atlantic States, where great numbers are 

 killed for the table in the fall. 



In Southern Ontario they arrive in May, and leave in September 

 at the first touch of frost. 



SUBGENUS COTURNICOPS BONAPARTE. 

 PORZANA NOYEBORACENSIS (GM.). 



83. Yellow Rail. (215) 



Above, varied with blackish and ochrey-brown, and thickly marked with 

 narrow white semicircles and transverse bass ; below, pale ochrey-brown, fading 

 on the belly, deepest on the breast where many of the feathers are tipped with 



