32 



THE ATLANTIC SLOPE NATURALIST. 



there for days at a time. When open- 

 ings are made in the ice, great numbers 

 congregate near, remaining for a short 

 time, then returning to their homes in 

 the mud to emerge again at the com- 

 ing of spring. 



The Sora Rail {Porzana Carolina) in 

 Captivity. 



By J. Harris Reed, Alden, Pa. 



During October, 1895, while Charles 

 Marter, of Beverly, N. Y., was out gun- 

 ning, his setter dog caught a live Rail 

 bird among the tussocks of meadow 

 grass. 



The following day he gave the bird to 

 Mrs. Louis N. Walton, who put it in a 

 large square cage, in the bottom of 

 which she put soil and sowed canary 

 seed. E'er long the seed formed a sod, 

 and as the grass grew taller the bird 

 would nestle down in it and sleep there 

 instead of on the perch. 



He was fed on rice, chickweed, apples 

 and occasionally earth worms, and he 

 became so tame as to take food from 

 the hand. His cage was kept in the 

 bathroom and he would take a bath in 

 his little tub or splash in it whenever the 

 water was run from the spigots. 



Occasionally he was left out of his 

 cage into a closed room for exercise, but 

 as he was a professional spinster this 

 luxury was not indulged in very often. 

 As spring approached he became more 

 restless and would emit a small quiet 

 call note. 



The following June he met his death 

 through a cat. He was in good condi- 

 tion, which shows that there is no diffi- 

 culty in keeping them in confinement, 

 although this is the only occurrence I 

 ever met with. 



The Water Ouzel. 



By A. R. Justice, Philadelphia, Pa. 



In the year 1886 I travelled through 

 California, and while at Santa Cruz I re- 

 called the name of an old ornithological 

 correspondent, George H. Ready. Making 

 inquiries, I found he was then Postmaster 

 of the town. I hunted him up, introduced 



myself, and was received very cordially. 

 Mr. Ready inquired if I was fond of trout 

 fishing ; on my responding in the affirma- 

 tive, he suggested that we take a buggy 

 ang drive to the mountain seven or eight 

 miles from the town. Accordingly we 

 started early the next morning, and 

 reached our destination about eight 

 o'clock a. m. Fishing was A 1, and we 

 caught between us about one hundred 

 trout within a few hours. The brook was 

 rapid and interspersed with numerous 

 waterfalls and pools, an ideal trout stream. 

 As we were making our way along the 

 stream, a large salmon darted out from 

 near the bank and made its way into a 

 deep pool, but no amount of coaxing 

 would induce it to strike. Intent on the 

 capture of the salmon, we had failed to 

 notice a nest on the side of the rock, 

 directly over the pool, until Mr. Ready's 

 eye glanced in that direction ; at the same 

 time a Water Ouzel flew from the nest 

 and lighted on the edge of the stream a 

 short distance away. The reader can 

 imagine we were not long in devising 

 ways and means for securing the eggs. 

 It was no easy task however, the rock 

 with precipitous sides was full twelve feet 

 high and the pool quite deep. We were, 

 however, not to be deterred by difficulties 

 and Mr. Ready being the lightest in 

 weight, I held on to his legs while he 

 lowered himself down head first. He 

 managed to reach the nest and found it to 

 contain five eggs, fresh. They were 

 white in color without marking and rather 

 pyriform in shape. We afterward found 

 another set further up the stream. Rain 

 set in shortly after and we availed our- 

 selves of the spreading branches of a 

 large redwood, fully twenty feet in diam- 

 eter, to protect us from the downpour, 

 and although we remained under this 

 shelter for several hours, not a drop 

 reached us. Numbers of Valley Quail 

 sought shelter under the same tree and 

 manifested little or no fear in our pres- 

 ence. The redwoods in the vicinity of 

 Santa Cruz are not the Sequocas proper, 

 but grow straight and are much more 

 symmetrical. We reached the town about 





