BRANCH CHORD AT A; CLASS AYES: THE BIRDS 349 



The rails are smaller than the cranes, with short wings 

 and very short tail. They live in marshes and swamps, 

 and in flying let the legs hang down. Their legs are 

 strong, and for escape they trust more to speed in running 

 than to flight. They are hunted for food. The most 

 abundant rail is the "Carolina crake" or "sora" 

 (Porsana Carolina), small and olive-brown with numerous 

 sharp white streaks and specks. Many of these birds are 

 shot each year during migration in the reedy swamps of 

 the Atlantic States. The American coot or mud-hen 

 (Fulica americana), dark slate-color with white bill, is one 

 of the most familiar pond-birds over all temperate North 

 America. Its nest consists of a mass of broken reeds 

 resting on the water; the eggs number about a dozen, 

 and are clay-color with pin-head dots of dark brown. 



The snipes, sandpipers, plover, etc. (Limicolae). The 

 large order Limicolae, the shore-birds, includes the 

 slender-legged, slender-billed, round-headed, rather 

 small wading birds of shores and marshes familiar to 

 us as snipes, plovers, sandpipers, curlews, yellow-legs, 

 sandpeeps, turnstones, etc. Most of them are game- 

 birds, such forms as the woodcock and Wilson's or 

 English snipe being much hunted. The food of these 

 birds consists of worms and other small animals, which 

 are chiefly obtained by probing with the rather flexible, 

 sensitive, and usually long bill in the mud or sand. The 

 killdeer (ALgialitis vocifera), familiar to all in its range 

 by its peculiar call and handsome markings, the upland 

 or field plover (Bartramia longicauda), with its long legs 

 and melodious quavering whistle, the tall, yellow-shanked 

 "telltale " or yellow-legs (Tetanus mclanoleucns) of the 

 marshes and wet pastures, are among the most wide- 

 spread and familiar species of the order. On the seashore 

 * the dense flocks of white-winged, whisking sandpipers 

 and the quickly running groups of plump ring-necked 



