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 theUnited 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, ai’e 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. 
Dui'ing the autumnal months, a goodly number of Soi’as 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, however, 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 shore's 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 
