THE OOLOGJST. 



305 



Sora and Virginia Rails- 



Sora Rail. A glance at -the map of 

 Miunesota will Unci many of its counties 

 completely dotted with lakes and one 

 would naturally and rightly expect it 

 to be the home of an abundance of 

 water birds. 



Of all those which breed in Hennepin 

 County, iu which Minneapolis is locat- 

 ed, the Sora Rail is perhaps the most 

 abundant- 

 One cannot journey- very far along a 

 road without coining across one of those 

 little ponds so common to our land- 

 scape with its borders of wild rice or 

 flags and wet meadows surrounding it. 

 In these the bird in question makes its 

 summer home aud though perhaps the 

 ordinary passers are all unaware that 

 such a bird exists, the ornithologist 

 tramping through the grass or search- 

 ing among the flags will have no diffi- 

 culty in Hushing one occasionly. 



The Rail may be considered a semi- 

 nocturnal bird. He keeps hidden away 

 in the grass during the broad day but as 

 soon as evening approaches he comes 

 forth from his retreats and at twilight 

 you may find him in his fullest activity 

 moving about on the lily pads or float- 

 ing vegatation on the borders of these 

 ponds. 



They do not find the least difficulty 

 in obtaining support, however light the 

 material on which they place them- 

 selves, a floating flag or a rice stem will 

 give an ample foundation and when it 

 is necessary to cross the clear water 

 they will either raise themselves in 

 short flight or lower themselves and 

 swim as does a Coot or Gallinule. The 

 tail, what little there is of it, is carried 

 erect when walking and I have seen 

 one in breeding time with his tail full 

 spread strutting about after the man- 

 ner of a Turkey gobbler. 



Their arrival is always associated in 

 my mind with that of the Yellow-head- 

 ed Blackbird and the Coot, which in 



this locality is a little before the first of 

 May. 



The nesting begins as early as the 

 middle of May and continues into the 

 middle of July. 



Fresh eggs can be found here about 

 the first of June more commonly than 

 at other periods. 



I have found the nests situated iu the 

 long grass of the meadows, in the flags 

 ...id cattails of the swamps and more 

 commonly in the matted tussocks of 

 wild rice stocks where there is an en- 

 tanglement of old and new growths. 

 The nest is formed of grasses or weeds, 

 it is not very deep* inside and has a 

 large diameter considering the size of 

 the bird. It is placed all the way from 

 close proximitAto the surface to a foot 

 and half above it. Ten eggs may be 

 called an average set though they vary 

 considerably about this number. 



When the summer draws to a close 

 the birds do not confine themselves so 

 much to their hidden retreats of the 

 breeding season but take to 'the more 

 open rice bordered streams and lakes . 

 There on account of the thinness of 

 the wild rice they may be found at all 

 hours though, as I have said before, they 

 are more active at twilight. 



The young are grown and their num- 

 bers are swelled so that they are much 

 more noticeable at this period than in 

 the spring. 



During the present season the3 r were 

 much more abundant than they have 

 been for four or five years past; it may 

 be on account of the lack of heavy 

 spring rains this year which so often 

 raise the water over the meadows just 

 at the breeding season. 



I visite*d a large lake some miles dis- 

 tant from Minneapolis early this' fall, 

 for the purpose of hunting ducks. 

 Hundreds of Rails had gathered in the 

 growth of wild rice that was scattered 

 from one end of the lake to the other. 

 Every shot from my gun awakened 

 such a series of piping notes that it was 



