492 REPORT OF THE 



rowed deep down into the mud, there, in a sort of hibernation, to pass the winter ! 

 Such an absurd notion has of course long since passed away, but the Sora still 

 continues to be as erratic in its movements as in days gone by, suddenly appearing 

 in multitudes where the day before scarce one was to be found, and anon with as 

 little ceremony taking its departure. 



Few game birds of the marsh are better known or more assiduously hunted than 

 the Sora. Into the vast areas that form its chosen haunts, particularly along the 

 Atlantic seaboard, it comes in wonderful numbers during the fall, and feeding then 

 upon its favorite food, the wild oats, grows very fat and of exceedingly delicate 

 flavor. It prefers those tracts that are thickly covered with reeds or rank grass, 

 where the tide only at its ebb leaves bare the ground, and where owing to its shy- 

 ness and agility it has the best chance of eluding its enemies. In fact, when the 

 tide is out, the Sora can hide without difficulty, and only its sharp notes betray its. 

 presence. But when a depth of water covers this feeding ground, the boats of the 

 hunters come on the flowing tide and there is genuine trouble and danger, for 

 the noise of the craft crashing through the reeds alarms the bird and it rises with 

 feeble flight low over the tops of the rushes where it forms an easy mark for the 

 gunner in the bow. At a time when the birds are numerous many dozen thus fall 

 victims in a few hours. Another method of capture, still more disastrous to the 

 birds, is to enter the reeds at night, near the flood of the tide, with a blazing torch 

 at the top of a pole fixed upright in the skiff or canoe ; the light bewilders the birds 

 and as fast as they appear they are killed with a long paddle. 



When migrating the Sora often moves in flocks of considerable size, with flight 

 quite strong and sustained, and has been found at sea off the coast at a distance of 

 several hundred miles from land; but in the marsh it flies only a short distance 

 and that slowly, with legs dangling as if about to alight. The less the depth of 

 water on its feeding grounds the more difficult it is to flush the bird, for it prefers 

 to run about over the floating and standing vegetation, on which it is quite as much 

 at home as on the ground. When undisturbed it walks or runs with tail conspicu- 

 ously erect, indifferently on the ground, on the lily-pads, on floating reeds or a log, 

 often with rapid jerks of head and tail ; but if hard, pressed or wounded it takes to 

 the water, diving readily, even for a short time clinging to the roots below the 

 surface, and, when forced to breathe, coming up beneath a mass of floating vegeta- 

 tion, there to hide with only the bill thrust out of water. It is, however, very 

 inquisitive, and any unusual discontinued sound, as of a stone cast among the reeds, 

 or a person walking, will cause it cautiously to investigate. 



In the seclusion of its reedy home, during May or June, the Sora makes its nest. 



