366 
ALECTORIDES. 
to that of this species. In Wilson’s time it was known as the “Fresh-water Mucl- 
hen,” because it frequented only those parts of the salt-marsh where fresh-water 
springs rose through the bogs in the salt-marshes. In such places these birds build 
their nests ; and one of these, which was seen by him, is described as being placed in 
the bottom of a tuft of grass in the midst of an almost impenetrable quagmire, and as 
composed altogether of old wet grass and rushes. The eggs had been floated out of 
the nest by an extraordinarily high tide, and lay scattered about. The female still 
lingered about the spot, and suffered herself to be taken by hand, and during the few 
hours she was detained laid an egg exactly like the others. Wilson describes the 
egg as being shaped like that of the Domestic Hen, and as measuring 1.20 inches in 
length by less than half an inch in breadth; it is of a dirty white or pale cream- 
color, sprinkled with specks of reddish and pale purple, most numerous near the great 
end. This bird was supposed to begin to lay early in May, and to raise two broods 
in a season, as in the month of July Mr. Ord brought to Wilson several young only a 
few days old, which had been caught on the borders of the Delaware. The parents had 
shown great solicitude for their safety. The young birds were covered with line down, 
and were wholly black, except a white spot on the bill. They had a short piping 
note. Owing to its secretive habits, this bird can rarely be seen. It stands and runs 
with its tail erect, which it jerks .whenever it moves ; it flies only to a short distance, 
with its legs hanging down. The moment it alights it runs off with great speed. 
Nutt all, who heard the notes of the male of this species on the Charles Eiver 
marshes, describes it as a guttural croaking call, like the noise of a watchman’s rattle, 
sounding like cut-a-cut-tee-ah. The young have a slender cry of peep-peep ; and the 
female, when startled, utters a sharp squeaking scream, which seems much nearer 
than it really is, and sounds like keek-keek-kelc. 
Audubon states that these birds winter in Lower Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, and 
the Carolinas, remaining in the Western States later in the fall than farther east ; but 
a large proportion retire after the first severe frosts. He met with them on the St. 
John’s Eiver, in New Brunswick — where, however, they are very rare; and he also 
remarks that he found them breeding in March near New Orleans ; in Kentucky in 
April; and a little later near Vincennes, in Illinois. 
Wilson evidently makes a mistake in regard to the breadth of the egg of this spe- 
cies, meaning doubtless an inch, and not half an inch. An egg (No. 210) in my 
collection, from Calumet marshes, Illinois, identified by Mr. Eobert Kennicott, 
measures 1.28 inches in length by .96 of an inch in breadth; and two (No. 1271) 
measure each 1.30 inches by exactly 1 inch in breadth. The ground-color in these 
is a creamy white. The markings are generally very much scattered, except about 
the larger end, where they are crowded together, but nowhere confluent ; these mark- 
ings are small blotches of a bright brownish red, and there are also slightly larger 
and fainter ones of a purplish lilac. The markings vary in size in the different eggs. 
In shape the egg is a rounded oval, one end much more tapering than the other. The 
usual number of its eggs is nine, never more than this, and very rarely less. 
Genus PORZANA, Vieillot. 
Porzana, Vieill. Analyse, 1816, 61 type, Rallus porzana, Linn. — Cass, in Baird’s B. N. Am. 
1858, 748. 
Ortygometra, Leach, Syst. Cat. 1816, 34. — Gray, Gen. B. III. 1846, 593 (type, Rallus porzana, 
Linn. ). 
Creciscus, Caban. Jour, fur Orn. 1856, 428 (type, Rallus jamaiccnsis, Gmel.). 
Coturnicops, Bonap. “ Compt. Bend. XLIII. 1856, 599 ” (type, Fulica novcboracensis, Gmel.). 
