SORA. 
189 
Nuttall must have confounded the present species with the 
Clapper Rail, for he makes no mention of the King Rail. Wilson 
figured the bird, but gave no description of its plumage or habits, 
and the first account of the species was given by Audubon in 1835. 
The King Rail is not so widely dispersed, nor is it so abundant, 
as most of its congeners ; but some writers have been in error in 
representing its distribution as exceedingly limited. It occurs reg- 
ularly throughout the Southern and Middle Slates, and is plentiful 
in Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ontario. In New England the 
bird has been seen but rarely, though examples have been taken in 
Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Maine. I have examined in the 
flesh one that was shot near St. John, N. B. 
In habits our bird is very similar to the Clapper Rail, differing 
chiefly in its preference for a marsh that is drained by a sluggish 
stream of fresh water. 
SORA. 
CAROLINA RAIL. CAROLINA CRAKE. COMMON RAIL. 
PORZANA CAROLINA. 
Char. Above, olive brown varied black and gray ; front of head, 
stripe on crown, and line on throat, black; side of head and breast ashy 
gray or slate ; sides of breast spotted with white'; flanks barred slate and 
white ; belly white. Bill short and stout. Length 8 to inches. 
Nest In a wet meadow or reedy swamp, sometimes in a salt-water 
marsh ; a rude structure of loosely arranged grass weed stems and 
rushes hid in a tussock of rank grass or coarse sedges. 
Eggs. 6-14 (usually 8) ; dark huff or yellowish drab, often tinged with 
olive, spotted with reddish brown and lilac ; 1.20 X 0.90. 
The Sora, or Common Rail, of America, which assemble in 
such numbers on the reedy shores of the larger rivers in the 
Middle and adjoining warmer States at the approach of au- 
tumn, and which afford such abundant employ to the sports- 
man at that season, like most of the tribe to which it belongs 
is a bird of passage, wintering generally south of the limits of 
the Union. These Rails begin to make their appearance in 
the marshes of Georgia by the close of February ; and on the 
zd of May Wilson observed them in the low watery meadows 
below Philadelphia. In the remote fur countries of the North 
