4 BULLETIN 128, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



i M ' > I 



MIGRATION. 



Rails and their allies include both migratory and nonmigratory 

 forms. Most of the salt-water species remain in the same marshes 

 the entire year, while the greater number of those breeding near fresh 

 water perform longer or shorter migrations. Much misunderstanding 

 has arisen in regard to the powers of flight of some of the species. 

 The flight of the sora is so slow and labored and the bird seems so 

 reluctant to use its wings that some writers have supposed that it was 

 unable to fly long distances and that its migration was therefore a 

 series of short flights or even performed on foot. As a matter of fact 

 the sora is among the long-distance migrants, the most northern 

 breeders traveling not less than 2,500 miles to the nearest winter 

 home; and those wintering south of the Equator being at least 3,000 

 miles from the nearest breeding grounds. Thousands make the 

 hundred-mile flight between Florida and Cuba, and there is reason to 

 believe that many individuals easily achieve the 500-mile passage 

 from Florida to Yucatan, and the equally long journey from the West 

 Indies across the Caribbean Sea to South America. 



As in previous bulletins of this nature, 1 the data on distribution and 

 breeding have been collected from both published and unpublished 

 sources; the migration data are taken principally from reports of 

 observers scattered all over the United States and Canada, who for 

 30 years have been furnishing the Biological Survey extensive records 

 of bird movements. 



NORTH AMERICAN RAILS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



WHOOPING CRANE. Orus americana (Linnaeus). 



Range.- — North America, from northern Mackenzie to Florida and 

 central Mexico. 



Breeding range. — Many years ago, when the whooping crane was 

 common, it was known to nest north to Great Slave Lake (Coues) 

 and south to Oakland Valley, Iowa (eggs in U. S. National Museum), 

 the breeding range being a northwest and southeast strip 1,500 

 miles long by less than 300 miles wide. The species probably 

 nested over a much wider area, since Hearne says that in his day, 

 about 1770, it occurred on the coast of Hudson Bay [near Fort 

 Churchill], and on May 25, 1865, Macfarlane saw it at Fort Ander- 

 son, Mackenzie, and about the same time Ross saw it at Fort Simp- 

 son, Mackenzie. It nested east of Dubuque, Iowa (Coues), Mile 

 Lacs, Minn. (Trippe), and Oak Point, Man. (Small); and west to 

 Spirit Lake, Iowa (Mosher), Herman, Minn. (Roberts and Benner), 

 Larimore, N. Dak. (Eastgate), Qu'Appelle, Sask. (Hind), and Stony 



1 Bui. 45, Biol. Surv., U. S. Dept. Agr., 1913, " Distribution and Migration of North American Herons 

 and Their Allies," et al. 



