Nesting of the Virginia Rail (Rallus 
virginianus). 
On June 21, 1892, 1 went out to a small 
inland swamp several miles north of st. Clair 
i to see if I could collect some Blackbird eggs. 
1 found several nests of these and two line sets 
of Swamp Sparrows, but was rather dis- 
appointed. I waded out to a large log thickly 
covered with underbrush and crept along for 
quite a way only to come face to face with a 
large, black snake. It would have required a 
good stop-watch to determine the seconds it 
took me to get off that log and endeavor to 
get a stick, but his snakesliip didn’t relish the 
meeting any more than I did and quickly 
: swam away. Close by her were several 
clumps of flags and out of one of these I 
startled a bird. Stooping eagerly down I found 
a nest full of eggs. It was a compactly built 
j nest, slightly hollowed and made of dead flags. 
I The eggs were ten in number, creamy white 
dotted with fine specks of reddish and lilac- 
| brown, averaging 1.25x.96 in size. I soon 
saw the bird and recognized it as tbe Virginia 
Rail (Iiallus virginianus). The female would 
not fly till almost stejrped on and would then 
fly quickly in a straight line and dive quickly 
into the underbrush where she would rapidly 
move away until out of sight. 
As I had never found any other but the 
Common Sora and occasionally a King Rail’s 
m st, I felt very much elated over my find. 
[ The eggs were badly incubated, but after half 
an hour’s labor I succeeded in saving them. 
B. II. Swales. 
1220 Woodward ave., Detroit, Mich. 
From 
j my own experience the Virginia Rails /are - 
always larger than the Sora, lighter in 
color and with fewer and smaller markings. 
! Clapper Rails are ovoidal in shape, tapering 
slightly toward smaller end. but not sharply 
pointed, ground color, a dirty cream or 
drab, with a few spots of reddish brown 
mingled with purple shell marks, mostly 
on and about the larger end. Virginia and 
Sora Rails are similar in shape to the above, 
but much smaller in size, the Virginia hav- 
ing a light cream ground with none of the 
olivaceous tint so common in the Sora. 
The markings of the former are small, of 
a reddish brown, with purple shell spots 
scattered over the surface, but more nu- 
merous near the larger end. The Sora is 
darker in color, and with the olive tint 
before mentioned, though I have specimens 
which are a dark, rich cream, without any 
olive. The spots are of two shades of 
brown, one overlaying the other and with 
the same purple spots or blotches. None 
of the Rails, to my knowledge, are ever so 
thickly sptotted as to have the ground color 
entirely concealed . — Snowdon Howland , 
Newport , R. Z.O.&O. Vlll. May.1883. p. 
Si 
Remember. — Our only place of business is at 
our works, Hyde Park, Mass. 
Frank Blake Webster Co. 
O.& O Vol. 17, July, 1892 p. 103 
I have 
not found Rails, breeding here until this 
season when, after special search, I took 
three sets of nine eggs each. Now, with 
their somewhat restricted habitat at my 
command, I can probably take their eggs 
every year if there is any use for them. 
/.M. ft/. A/tfiw 
O.&O. Vll. Nov. 1882. p. i“73. 
