THE BIRDS OF NEW JERSEY. 113 



The Sora is best known in New Jersey as a transient game bird, 

 and in the autumn both it and the Reedbird are killed in large num- 

 bers on the marshes bordering the Delaware and other large rivers, 

 which are then covered with the tall stalks of the wild rice. The 

 gunners are poled about in old flatboats, and the feeble-winged Rail- 

 birds fall an easy prey to their guns. 



215 Coturnicops noveboracensis (Gmelin). 

 Yellow Rail. 



Adults. Length, 6-7.50. Wing, 3-3.50. Head, neck and breast, bright 

 ochraceous, slightly edged with darker ; top of head, lores and entire back, 

 blackish ; head narrowly, back and wings broadly streaked with ochraceous ; 

 neck, back and wings narrowly barred with white; secondaries, white; middle 

 of abdomen, white ; sides barred with black and white ; crissum, brown. 



Rather rare transient, most frequently seen in fall, when quite a 

 number are doubtless shot by gunners and not recorded. 



I have the following records : 



Palmyra; W. L. Baily; October 13th, 1886. 1 



Princeton; A. H. Phillips; April 10th, 1895. 2 



Hackensack; George Richards; September 30th, 1893. 3 



Salem; Mr. McKee; October 24th, 1908. 4 



Dr. Trudeau told Audubon that they reached Salem by the end of 

 April, and that a few remained there for the summer. The latter 

 statement has never been confirmed. 



216 Creciscus jamaicensis (Gmelin). 

 Black Rail. 



Adult*. Length, 5-6. Wing, 2.50-3.20. Above, brown, darker and blacker 

 on the head and lower parts ; lower back and wings spotted with white ; sides 

 of head and under parts, deep plumbeous ; lower abdomen and crissum spotted 

 and barred with white. 



Nest on the ground in marshy places, made of grass and rushes ; eggs, 

 creamy-white, speckled with reddish-brown, 1.03 x .75. 



1 Stone, Birds of 1$. Pa. and N. J., p. 67. 



2 Babson, Birds of Princeton, p. 41. 



3 Forest and Stream, September 20th, 1893, p. 33G. 



4 Harlow, Auk, 1909, p. 190. 



8 



