PORZANA NOVEBORACENS1S. 431 



iii winter from the Carolina.? to Key West. They breed in Massachusetts during the last 

 week in May or first in June. 



PORZANA NOVEBORACENSIS. 



Yellow Rail. 

 Purzana Noveboracensis CASS., Baird's Birds N. A.; 1858, 79). 



DESCRIPTION. 



Sr. Cu. Form, slender. Size, small. Tongue, wide, thin, and horny, especially at tip which is gradually rounded 

 und billd. Bill, ratlier slender. 



COLOR. Ai/ult. Above, and on sides and flanks, dark-brown, with all the fen thers, excepting primaries, longitudi- 

 nally streaked with yellowish and transversely banded with white. Neck, breast, and under tail coverts, reddish-bull'. lie- 

 maindcr of under portions, and tips of secondaries, white. Legs, iris, and bill, brown, with the latter yellow at base of 

 lower mandible. Youny. Similar to the adult but paler below. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



Readily known by the small size, broad white banif on secondaries, and colors as described. Distributed, in summer 

 from Hudson's Bay to Massachusetts. Winters in Florida. 



DIMENSIONS. 



Avrrairo measurements of specimens from Eastern North America. Length, tt'75; stretch, 13-50; wing, 3-55; tnil, 

 1-65; bill, 'Kr, tarsus, '80. Longest specimen, 7'25; greatest extent of wing, IS'OO; longest wing, 3'80; tail, 1'75, bill, -fiO; 

 tarsus, -85. Shortest specimen, (VO!); smallest extent of wing, 12-00; shortest wing, 3-S25; tail, 1-50; bill, -50; tarsus, -75. 



DESCRIPTION OF NESTS AND EGGS. 



Nests, placed on the ground in marshy places, composed of grass, weeds, etc. &/g*, from six to ten in number, oval 

 in form, deep buff in color, dotted and spotted irregularly, but very sparcely, with reddish-brown and lilac. Dimensions 

 from -85x1-15 to -80x1-05. 



HABITS. 



"September eighth, 1868, walking with a young lad over a squash field on high land, 

 but within twenty or thirty rods of a meadow; suddenly I heard the boy who was on the 

 lookout for speciinens, exclaim, 'Ilere's a Sparrow with white wings!' 'Shoot it!' said I, 

 and looking toward him, I saw him beating about among the squash leaves, then raise his 

 gun and fire, after which he ran forward, and stooping down, exclaimed, 'It is a Rail!' I 

 hastened to the spot, took the bird in my hand, and to my surprise and delight, it proved 

 to be the rare Yellow Rail, the first that I had ever seen; a female it proved upon dissec- 

 tion, (No, 12-10). This was in the dusk of the evening, and when first started, the bird 

 made a squeaking noise, but not loud, for I stood within fifteen rods of the place and did 

 not hear it. The secondaries of this specimen are broadly margined with white, a fact not 

 noticed by Audubon or Baird; thus this must be peculiar, or these ornithologists would 

 have observed it; indeed it gave the bird the appearance of having white wings, in the dusky 

 light in which it was shot. I should think that it is a young bird but in perfect plumage. 

 The body and head remind one strongly of some of the small foreign Quails." 



The above is an extract from one of my note books, und four years later, on the twen- 

 tieth of January, I started a Yellow Rail in one of the partly submerged marshes on the bor- 

 der of the St. John's River in Florida, near Blue Spring. This specimen rose some dis- 

 tance from me and flew quite rapidly, for a Rail, in a straight line for some distance, (lien 

 dropped into the tall grass, from which I could not make it rise again. I easily recognized 

 Iliis specimen by the small size and emispicuous white tipping* to the primaries, u eharar- 

 ter which I find is constant in all specimens that 1 have examined, but which appears to 

 have been overlooked by most writers on ornithology. In June, 187o, I heard some sin- 



