FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



491 



A hunter in an Ohio swamp once so surprised one of these rails with two of its 

 young that, without attempting to escape, and evidently terrified at the prospect 

 of possible danger to its offspring, it did nothing but run round and round them, 

 as though thus to protect them from all harm ! 



The King Rail is about 18 inches long, and some 24 in alar extent. The upper 

 surface is yellowish olive, or slate color with an ochraceous tinge, and distinctly 

 striped with black ; the crown is deep brown ; the superciliary stripe anteriorh' 

 brownish white, posteriorly broader and brov^'nish gray; the lores and the region 

 below the eye are brownish gray; tail dull brown, with a darker median stripe; the 

 wings are fuscous, with coverts inclining to rusty, sometimes more or less barred 

 with reddish white ; the chin and throat 

 are white ; the cheeks, sides of neck, with 

 the breast, pale cinnamon ; sides and flianks 

 dark brown, barred with white ; crissum 

 mixed white and brownish, laterally almost 

 pure white ; the middle of the abdomen is 

 lighter than the breast, sometimes nearly 

 white ; the lining of the wing similar to the 

 flanks. The bill is yellow below, with tip 

 and top dark brown ; the eye is bright red, 

 the feet yellowish olive brown. The female 

 is like the male, though somewhat less in 

 size. There is great individual variation 

 both of size and color, but this species may 

 always be readily distinguished from its 

 cousin of the salt-water marshes. 



TI)e aora H.ait. 



It is very strange to what improbable 

 suppositions a mysterious or unexplainable 

 circumstance in the life of an animal will 

 often give rise. For instance, when people 

 were at loss to account for the sudden 

 appearance and disappearance of the great 

 numbers of Carolina Rails, or Soras, they 

 offered as explanation of this simple fact 

 of migration the theory that the rails bur- 



AN INTERRUPTTON. 



