THE SORA RAIL. 147 



tarry for some time, and recruit its strength. Thus, in September and part 

 of October, the Sora is found in great numbers on the borders of our great 

 lakes, feeding on wild oats, and on the reedy margins of the rivers of our 

 Middle Districts. Several natural causes prevent birds of this species from 

 following the sea-coast of the United States, while migrating either in spring 

 or in autumn, the principal of which is the absence there of their favourite 

 Zizania marshes, which are but very rarely met with to the east of the 

 State of New York. This is probably the cause of the great rarity of this 

 species in Massachusetts, whilst, so far as I know, none are ever found to the 

 eastward of that State. These observations are corroborated by those of my 

 friend Thomas MacCulloch of Pictou, who never met with one of these 

 birds during many years' residence in that part of Nova Scotia. 



Having seen flocks of Soras winging their way close over the waters of 

 the Gulf of Mexico, and between Cape Florida and the main shores of the 

 Carolinas, in the month of April, when they were moving directly towards 

 Cape Lookout, I have very little doubt that many return in the same track, 

 in the end of October, when the young, well fed and strengthened, are able 

 to follow their parents on wing, even across that large extent of water. I 

 shall now dismiss this part of the subject, by adding, in confirmation of their 

 capability of protracted flight, that some of these birds, when accidentally 

 separated from their flock, have supported themselves on wing until they 

 have met with vessels several hundred miles from land; and facts of this 

 kind have been announced by persons of well known respectability. 



During the autumnal months, a goodly number of Soras are found in the 

 rice-fields and fresh-water marshes of the Carolinas. Sometimes also they 

 have been shot in salt-water marshes, in spring, while on their northward 

 migration. At this period they are very silent, until forced to fly. In those 

 States none are seen during summer. Very few, it appears, remain in any 

 part of the Middle Districts. My friend John Bachman, how r ever, was 

 shewn some eggs of this bird, that had been found in the meadows below 

 Philadelphia; and whilst I was in the company of my friend Edward 

 Harris, Esq., on a Woodcock shooting expedition, my son shot some young 

 birds scarcely fledged, and shortly afterwards an adult female. John Bach- 

 man met with a nest on the shores of the Hudson, and I saw two in the 

 marshes of Lake Champlain. 



Fond of concealment, as all its tribe are, the Sora is rarely seen during 

 day, although, being seminocturnal, it skulks amid the tall reeds or grasses, 

 both by day and at night, in search of its food. Differing, however, in habit, 

 as well as in form, from the Gallinules, it rarely abandons the retreats which 

 it has chosen after the breeding season, and rises, when forced by tides, to 

 the tops of the plants about it, climbing along or clinging to their stalks or 



