BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA . 
71 
yellow, those of the Virginia Rail are dull reddish-brown. This species 
and the preceding may be said to be the only rails which are common 
in Pennsylvania. The Carolina Rail arrives here about the first week in 
May. During the latter part of August and early in September, it is 
not uncommon to find these birds in parties numbering from six to 
twenty, sometimes many more,* in swamps and wet grassy meadows. 
The Sora has been found breeding in Chester county, along the Bran¬ 
dywine, and it occurs in different localities in Pennsylvania as a regular 
or occasional summer resident. In Montgomery county, Mr. Thomas S. 
Gillin, of Ambler, has noted it as an occasional breeder, and Mr. George 
B. Sennett says it breeds occasionally in Erie county. Prof. August 
Kock states that in Lycoming county “ they breed in small colonies in 
small open swamps, which are grown with a few small bushes.” In Lan¬ 
caster county, both Dr. Treichler and Mr. William N. Buffer, mention 
the Sora as a native. Dr. Isaiah F. Everhart and Mr. George P. Eriant, 
of Scranton, have young birds, captured in Lackawanna county. Dr. 
Van Fleet, Clinton county, and Mr. D. Frank Keller, Berks county, have 
found it breeding. “ Eggs 8-12,1.23 x .89 brownish buff, rather sparsely 
spotted with brown and purplish gray .”—Ridgway Manual N. A. Birds. 
The food materials which were found in the stomachs of sixteen of these 
birds are given below: 
NO. 
Date. 
Locality. 
Food-Materials. 
1 
Sept. 8. 1880 . 
Near Chester city. Pa. 
Green-colored vegetable matter. 
2 
Sept. 8. 1880. 
Near Chester city, Pa. 
Brown-colored seeds, large and small. 
3 
Sept. 8, 1880. 
Near Chester city. Pa. 
Brown and yellow-colored seeds. 
4 
Sept. 8, 1880. 
Near Chester city, Pa. 
Brown and yellow-colored seeds. 
5 
Sept. 8 , 1880. 
Near Chester city, Pa. 
Yellow seeds and particles of shells. 
6 
Sept. 8. 1880. 
Near Chester city, Pa. . . 
Green-colored vegetable matter. 
7 
Sept. 8, 1880 . 
Near Chester city, Pa . 
Seeds and other vegetable matter. 
8 
Sept. 8, 1880 . 
Near Chester city. Pa . 
Yellow-colored seeds. 
9 
Sept. 8. 1880 . 
Near Chester city, Pa . 
Yellow and brown-colored seeds 
10 
Sept. 8, 1880 . 
Near Chester city, Pa. .. 
Seeds and other vegetable mutter. 
11 
Sept. 8, 1880 . 
Near Chester city, Pa . 
Seeds and other vegetable matter. 
12 
Sept. 8, 1880, .... 
Near Chester city, Pa . 
Seeds and other vegetable matter. 
13 
Oct. 3, 1880 . 
Pocopson, Pa. .. 
Black-colored seeds. 
14 
May 3, 1882 . 
Chester county, Pa . 
Small ‘ ‘ worms. ” 
15 
July 20, 1884. 
Chester county, Pa., . 
Small green seeds. 
16 
Aug. 12, 1884. 
Chester county, Pa. 
Beetles and vegetable matter. 
Porzana noveboracensis (Gmel.). 
Yellow Rail. 
Description. 
“ Entire upper parts ochre-yellow, with longitudinal wide stripes of brownish- 
black and transverse narrow stripes of white ; neck and breast reddish ochre-yellow ; 
many feathers tipped with brown ; middle of abdomen white ; flanks and ventral 
region with transverse bands of dark reddish-brown and narrow bands of white; 
under tail coverts rufous with small spots of white and black ; under wing-coverts 
white. Length (from tip of bill to end of tail), about 6 inches; extent about 13; 
wing 3| ; tail 1£ ; bill \ inch.”— B. B. of N.^A. 
* Mr. James Thompson, of Erie city, informs me that upwards of eighty of these rails have been taken 
In a day about the ponds on the peninsula at Erie bay. In these ponds wild rice grows in abundance, and 
rails as well as many other water birds, resort there to feed on the seeds of this plant. 
