28 



BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



the premises, which affection appears the more necessary as the male 

 seems to desert his mate and leave her in the sole charge of her little 

 family." 



FOOD. 



According to several writers, the food of this bird is made up al- 

 most entirely of various forms of aquatic insects, larvas and worms. 



GENUS PORZANA. VIEILLOT. 

 214. Porzana Carolina (LINN.). 



Sora; Carolina Rail; Rail-bird, Etc. 



DESCRIPTION. (Plate 7.) 



Space around the base of the bill, extending downwards on the neck before and 

 over the top of the head, black. 



Male. Upper parts greenish-brown, with longitudinal bands of black, and many 

 feathers having narrow stripes of white on their edges ; behind the eye, sides of the 

 neck, and the breast, fine bluish-ashy, with circular spots and transverse bands of 

 white on the breast; middle of the abdomen and under tail coverts white ; sides and 

 flanks with transverse bands of brownish-black and white ; bill greenish-yellow ; 

 legs dark-green. 



Female. Similar, but duller in colors ; iris light-brown in both sexes. 



Young. Without black at the base of the bill or on the neck ; throat dull-white ; 

 breast dull yellowish-ashy ; upper parts tinged with dull-yellow. 



Length, about 8| inches ; extent, about 13 inches ; wing, 4^ ; tail, about 2 inches. 



Hab. Temperate North America, but most common in the eastern province, 

 breeding chiefly northward. South in winter to the West Indies and northern South 

 America. 



The Carolina Rail and Virginia Rail resemble each other in size 

 and form, but otherwise are greatly different. First, they differ in 

 plumage ; secondly, the bill of the Carolina Rail is about three-fourths 

 of an inch long, while in the Virginia Rail this organ is often over 

 one and one-half inches in length; again, the legs of the Carolina 

 Rail are greenish-yellow, those of the Virginia Rail are dull reddish - 

 brown. This species and the preceding may be said to be the only 

 Rails which are regularly found in Pennsylvania. The Carolina Rail 



