THE CAROLINA RAIL. 441 



The nest, placed on the ground in some marshy spot, and 

 more or less neatly arranged of dried grasses, sometimes 

 resting on a slight bed of sticks, is about a foot in diameter 

 and three or four inches in depth, and is sometimes partly 

 sheltered by shrubbery. It contains some four or five 

 greenish-tinted eggs, some 1.85x1.45, sometimes obscurely 

 marked with brownish or lavender. This species generally 

 breeds in May or early in June. Arriving here in April, it 

 leaves for the south rather early in the fall. 



Of this species, variety hudsonius, is found throughout 

 North America, variety cyaneus in Europe and Asia, while 

 cinereus belongs to South America. 



THE CAROLINA RAIL. 



But for the feathers of this Carolina Rail (Porzana Caro- 

 lina], left after the meal of the Marsh Hawk, the stranger 

 to ornithology might not suspect its presence in this marsh; 

 for they may abound, in one of these sedgy, reedy localities, 

 and yet be so closely concealed as to elude all ordinary 

 observation. They are abundant, however, in the marshes 

 and about bodies of water, throughout the middle districts 

 of our Union, and far to the north, from April till late in 

 October, disappearing, it would seem, on the approach of 

 cold weather. If the observer will carefully hide himself in 

 these marshy resorts, near the close of day, he may 

 hear their queep-eep-ip-ip-ip-ip-ip-ip, or quaite, quaite, peep, peep, 

 kuk-kuk-kuk the first two or three syllables in long- 

 drawn, coaxing tones, and the remaining syllables shorter 

 and more hurried representing the vocal performance of 

 this species. Here, too, especially if he be near the 

 border of some sluggish pool, he may have frequent 

 glimpses of Porzana, as it runs with tail erect upon 

 the lily-pods in search or its food of small aquatic 



