FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



493 



usually in some dense tussock, or in the grass, safe above the water. It is but 

 a loose platform or mass of rushes and grass, though sometimes, either by reason 

 of the broken down vegetation round about it, or the bird's intent it is more or less 

 completely overarched. The seven to fourteen eggs have a pale drab ground color 

 and markings of reddish brown. The young are covered with dull black clown, and 

 have a strange looking tuft of orange-colored bristles on the throat ; they run 

 about with their m.other soon after hatching. 



A BLIND FOR SHORE BIRDS. 



Eastern North America seems to be the region most frequented by this bird, 

 though it is found all over the continent from at least the latitude of 62° south- 

 Avard, and quite to the Pacific coast, ranging to the West Indies, Central America 

 and northern South America. It breeds from southern California and the middle 

 Eastern States northward. 



The Sora is olive brown above, with lengthened markings of black, and some 

 white edgings to the feathers; the top of the head has a broad stripe of black, 

 ■while its fore part, as well as the chin and throat, are of the same color. The 



