156 MICHIGAN BIRD LIFE. 
Distribution.—Temperate North America, breeding chiefly northward, 
but less commonly on the Pacific coast. Casually north to south Greenland. 
South to the West Indies and northern South America. 
All things considered this is our commonest Michigan rail, nesting 
abundantly in suitable places all over the state, and frequenting almost all 
wet places except the overflowed woodlands which have neither underbrush 
nor grass. Their favorite haunts are the extensive marshes of cattails, 
wild rice, reeds and sedges, but a pair or two can almost always be found 
in any small cat-hole in the pasture or woods, and they frequently are found 
along the ditches and swales which border the highway, even when there 
are no large marshes within sight. 
In general habits they are similar to the Virginia Rail, but in most places 
are more abundant and they also appear to be less shy and suspicious; 
at all events they are more often seen by the sportsman and the average 
pedestrian. They are decidedly noisy, their loud and not unmusical notes 
being one of the characteristic sounds of our marshes, most noticeable at 
evening, though often heard all night long. If one hides among the reeds, 
or merely sits quietly in his boat in a favorable spot, he is very likely to see 
one or more of these birds tripping lightly over the lily-pads or other 
floating vegetation, picking up insects, snails, or floating seeds, and occa- 
sionally fluttering up among the stems to catch an insect or reach a spray of 
wild rice. Mr. Chapman speaks of their ordinary note as a “‘clear whistled 
ker-wee, now and then interrupted by a high-voiced rolling whinny which, 
like a call of alarm, is taken up and repeated by different birds all over the 
marsh. They seem so absorbed by their musical devotions that even 
when calling continuously it requires endless patience and keen eyes to see 
the dull colored, motionless forms in places where one would not suppose 
there was sufficient growth to conceal them” (Handbook, 1904, p. 143). 
The nest is similar to that of the other rails, sometimes well built, some- 
times very carelessly, almost always, however, in vegetation which is 
growing directly in the water. The eggs vary from 6 to 15, and are buffy 
white of a much deeper shade than those of the Virginia Rail, and usually 
more thickly and heavily spotted with brown and purple. They average 
1.32 by .95 inches. 
This bird is commonly shot by sportsmen and is considered good eating. 
After it has become fat on wild rice at the south it is much sought after 
and is the ‘ortolan” of the Washington and Baltimore markets. The 
name is an absurd one, having been transferred to this bird from the Bob- 
olink, which is now called Rice-bird in the same localities. The true Ortolan 
(Emberiza hortulana) is a European sparrow or finch about the size of our 
Bobolink and much prized as food in southern Europe. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Adult: Face and median line of crown black; rest of upper parts olive brown, spotted 
with pure black, and streaked and dotted with white; sides of head and neck bluish ash, 
this color covering all the lower neck and the forepart of the breast; auricular region brown 
like the back; chin and median line of throat black; lower breast and belly nearly white, 
faintly barred with dusky; sides and flanks distinctly barred with black and white; sides 
of breast shaded with olive. more or less dotted with white; under tail-coverts white, 
washed with rufous. Bill bright yellow, feet green. Sexes alike. Immature: Similar, 
but lores and stripe over the eye brownish, the bluish ash of head, neck and breast replaced 
by light grayish brown. Downy, young,'clear black with a tuft of orange colored bristly 
feathers on the breast. Length 7.85 to 9.75 inches; wing 4.15 to 4.30; culmen .75 to .90. 
