THE SORA RAIL 231 
low and wings pressed to his sides, he forces 
his thin body in its rapid course, doubling back 
and forth in devious ways to the despair of all 
dogs. A few trips after rails would spoil the 
best bird dog that ever lived. Such a thing as 
‘laying to a dog’’ does not appear in any of 
their codes. 
THE SORA RAIL. CAROLINA RAIL. 
(Porzana carolina.) 
This is the most common species in New Eng- 
land as elsewhere on the eastern half of our 
continent. Almost entirely a vegetable feeder, 
in our sea marshes its ‘‘staff of life’’ is the long 
white seeds of the marsh grass, or ‘‘thatch,’’ as 
it is called, which lines the edges of the tide 
waters and marshy shores, and this, with the 
snails and ‘‘wigglers’’ so abundant there, forms 
its entire menu. It is said that in a marsh 
where much shooting is done they will some- 
times fill themselves up with shot, which, it is 
claimed, they mistake for some kind of seed. 
Though we have seen many a rail filled with shot 
it was never willingly on the bird’s part, and I 
think it is our privilege to doubt this statement 
