Birds of the Adirondack Region. 
C.BjMemam. 
' 5 1 ^° rZana , CarOUna {IJnn ^ Baird - Sora Rail. — Breeds about 
die old Forge at the foot of the Fulton Chain of Lakes in Herkimer 
ounty. 
BuR. N.O.O. Q.Oot, 1881, p.234 
Wintering of Sora Rail at the North. — Mr. L. S. Ward of 
Rochester, N. Y., write’s me that he received a female Porzana Carolina 
caught in his vicinity on Dec. 12, 1882. The bird was brought to him 
by a farmer who said that while hunting rabbits with a ferret on his farm, 
which is watered by a creek where Rails abound in season, this bird was 
driven from a hole in the ground. u It seemed to be in a partially torpid 
condition, and was easily caught as it crouched on the ground.” This 
was nearly in the midst of winter, with cold weather and plenty of snow 
and ice. On skinning the bird it proved to be much emaciated. While 
I do not wish this paragraph to be held up in evidence that I believe that 
Rails hibernate in the mud, or even turn into frogs, the circumstances 
of the case seem quite worthy of record. — Elliott Coues, Washington , 
D - c Ball. N,’ 0. 0. S 8 Apil. X883, p. A? H ■ 
A Wounded Sora’s Long Swim. — While superintending the unloading 
of brick schooners at the Mt. Loretto dock, Pleasant Plains, Staten Island, 
N. Y., on September 20, 1906, I saw what I presumed to be a terrapin 
swimming along with the current of the ebbing tide. I sculled out in a 
small boat in order to investigate, and was surprised to find that the sup- 
posed turtle was a Sora Rail ( Porzana Carolina). As the boat drew near 
it beat the water frantically with its wings and made every effort to escape, 
but when finally captured, manifested a disposition to defend itself, and 
repeatedly struck my hands and fingers with its bill. 
I confined the bird in a crate on one of the schooners, where a number 
of Sicilian laborers gathered around it, and signified their desire to make 
a meal of it. One of the laborers thrust a finger between the slats of the 
crate, and to my astonishment the rail rushed toward it with opened bill. 
In fact it showed little fear of human beings, pugnaciously resisting every 
intrusion, but when a small dog belonging on the vessel, approached and 
barked at it, the bird retreated in apparent terror to the opposite side 
of the crate. 
A decided drooping of the Sora’s right wing explained its disablement. 
It died within a few hours, and when I skinned it I found the muscles on 
the right side of the sternum badly bruised, and clothed with blood, as if 
the bird had flown forcibly against some hard object. 
Judging from the direction from which the Sora had come, it must 
have swam all the way across Raritan Bay from the salt marshes near Jack- 
sonville, New Jersey, a distance of at least nine miles. — Robert C. Murphy 
Mt. Sinai, Long Island, N. Y. XXIV, Jan., 190V, P-f6 
