SORA. 189 



Nuttall must have confounded the present species with the 

 Clapper Rail, for he makes no mention of the King Rail. Wilson 

 figured the bird, but gave no description of its plumage or habits, 

 and the first account of the species was given by Audubon in 1835. 



The King Rail is not so widely dispersed, nor is it so abundant, 

 as most of its congeners ; but some writers have been in error in 

 representing its distribution as exceedingly limited. It occurs reg- 

 ularly throughout the Southern and Middle States, and is plentiful 

 in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ontario. In New England the 

 bird has been seen but rarely, though examples have been taken in 

 Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine. I have examined in the 

 flesh one that was shot near St. John, N. B. 



In habits our bird is very similar to the Clapper Rail, differing 

 chiefly in its preference for a marsh that is drained by a sluggish 

 stream of fresh water. 



SORA. 



CAROLINA RAIL. CAROLINA CRAKE. COMMON RAIL. 



PORZANA CAROLINA. 



Char. Above, olive brown varied black and gray ; front of head, 

 stripe on crown, and line on throat, black ; side of head and breast ashy 

 gray or slate ; sides of breast spotted with white ; flanks barred slate and 

 white ; belly white. Bill short and stout. Length 8 to 9^ inches. 



Nest. In a wet meadow or reedy swamp, sometimes in a salt-water 

 marsh ; a rude structure of loosely arranged grass weed stems and 

 rushes hid in a tussock of rank grass or coarse sedges. 



Eggs. 6-14 (usually 8) ; dark buff or yellowish drab, often tinged with 

 olive, spotted with reddish brown and lilac; 1.20 X 0.90. 



The Sora, or Common Rail, of America, which assemble in 

 such numbers on the reedy shores of the larger rivers in the 

 Middle and adjoining warmer States at the approach of au- 

 tumn, and which afford such abundant employ to the sports- 

 man at that season, like most of the tribe to which it belongs 

 is a bird of passage, wintering generally south of the limits of 

 the Union. These Rails begin to make their appearance in 

 the marshes of Georgia by the close of February ; and on the 

 2d of May Wilson observed them in the low watery meadows 

 below Philadelphia. In the remote fur countries of the North 



