104 NOTES ON THE 
gloaming of the evening. They are found to have arrived 
about the first of May with great uniformity, and after about 
three weeks the nests are built, and consist of a pile of weeds 
and grass of considerable bulk, having only about an inch in 
exavation, sometimes a little deeper, into which they deposit 
eight to teneggs. I should say that when the first egg is layed 
the depression is very slight indeed, but the male continues to 
build up the structure around the female, or she rearranges 
the material so as to increase the elevation around herself, or, 
which is the more probable, the weight of her narrow body 
upon the loose, light materials, continues to deepen the excava- 
tion for sometime after she begins to occupy it. The color of 
the eggs is a dark, dirty buff, blotched with different shades 
of brown, or a reddish and brown. Their habits confine them 
to swamps, marshes and meadows difficult to approach, and 
are therefore less frequently discovered. From these consider- 
ations we are justified in the presumption that they may be 
much more numerous than at first appears. Except in unusu- 
ally favorable seasons they leave in their autumnal migrations 
early in September, but they are occasionally seen as late as 
the 25th of that month. During the summer I find them about 
the reedy bays of most of the lakes in different Seasons and not 
infrequently along the marshy borders of several streams 
within an hour’s ride of my home. Examples of this species 
are often to be seen mounted, in the shops of the taxidermists, 
representing both sexes and the young of the year. 
Although Mr. Washburn made his explorations of the Red 
river valley between the 28th of July and the 12th of Sep- 
tember, for some reason or other he failed to find these Rails, 
although he met with Soras in abundance everywhere. Mr. 
Holzinger reports them as frequently seen about Lake Winona. 
Iam not a little surprised that so careful an observer as Dr. 
Hvoslef did not mention their presence at Lanesboro. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Much smaller than either the King or the Clapper Rail, but 
resembles them both in form and the former in color. Upper 
parts olive-brown with longitudinal stripes of brownish-black; 
line from the base of the bill over the eye reddish-white; throat 
white; neck before, and breast bright rufous; abdomen and 
under tail coverts, with transverse bands of black and white, 
the black being the wider; upper wing coverts bright rufous- 
chestnut; under wing coverts black, with trransverse lines of 
white. 
Length, 7.50; wing, 4; tail, 1.50. 
Habitat, North America. 
