170 WASTE-LAND WANDERINGS. 



the ornithologist interest centres in it, early in its sea- 

 son, before persecuted by dogs and gunners. Probably 

 one reason why so seldom seen, and so difficult to flush, 

 is that it is more crepuscular than diurnal in its habits. 

 The structure of its eyes may not suggest this, but I 

 have often noticed its voluntary apj^earance upon the 

 open mud -flats an hour or more after sundown, and 

 seen them during moonlit nights continually rise above 

 the reeds, and, flying a short distance, drop again from 

 view. They fly, too, across the Delaware and across 

 this creek far more frequently at night than during the 

 day. 



Like the smaller yellow and black rail-birds, the sora 

 has a cry that is j)eculiar in its marked resemblance to 

 the rattle of our green frog, Raiia clamitans. The voice 

 of the king-rail, on the other hand, is very different, and 

 rather musical. It suggests the tapping of a hammer 

 upon an anvil. A muflled, metallic ringing, perhaps in- 

 telligibly expressed by the following : Ke-link - kiiik ; 

 kink-kink-kink. 



For several summers king-rails, perhaps but a single 

 pair, have nested in a bit of marshy meadow near my 

 home, and the summer long, all day, and often at night, 

 its cry could be heard. A word more concerning the 

 rail -birds of the Crosswicks valley, and of the nobler 

 valley of the river beyond, for there are other and more 

 extensive areas of marsh, where these birds congregate 

 in far greater numbers than here. Dr. Turnbull writes 

 of an European species : " The Corn-crake. A specimen 

 shot at Salem is now in the collection of the Academy 

 of Science (Philadelphia). Another was procured near 



