DESCRIPTION. 153 



season ornamented with several long, narrow, 

 white plumes, bill black, and iris reddish, other 

 upper parts bluish-gray, lower parts white, often 

 tinged with delicate cream -yellow. Young : Brown- 

 ish, striped longitudinally with white and grayish- 

 brown, the quills with small white spots at tips, 

 tail-feathers plain ash-gray. 



58. Virginia Rail. 



Length about 10 inches. Bill about If inches 

 long. Above, olive-brownish, striped with black- 

 ish, wing-feathers chestnut-rufous, breast cinnamon, 

 flanks dusky, barred with white. Immature plum- 

 age with lower parts mixed with black. 



59. Sora. 



Length about 9 inches. Bill about f-inch long. 

 Forehead and throat black, top of head olive- 

 brown, with a stripe of black, flanks barred with 

 white and slate-colour, breast plumbeous. Young : 

 Stripe above eye brownish, throat whitish, head, 

 neck and breast light-brownish. 



60. Yellow Rail. 



Length about 7J inches. Bill about J-inch long. 

 Upper parts ochraceous, striped with black and 

 barred with white, breast ochraceous, under tail- 

 coverts cinnamon, secondary wing-feathers and 

 under wing-coverts white. 



