240 
BIRDS OF NEW MEXICO 
Nest. A wide platform of grass or flags and rushes in marshy places, sometimes 
on old muskrat houses, generally surrounded by open water. Eggs: Usually 2, olive- 
buff, spotted and blotched with reddish brown. 
Food. Small fruits, roots, succulent vegetation, grasshoppers and other insects, 
frogs, tadpoles, snakes, small rodents, young birds and eggs (T. S. Roberts). 
General Habits. —In 1874, when Mr. Henshaw was accompanying 
the Wheeler Survey, he wrote: “The banks of the Rio Grande in Colo¬ 
rado furnish an autumnal home for thousands of these birds. Farther 
down in New Mexico, late in November, we found the banks of the river 
at certain points between Fort Craig and Albuquerque dotted with the 
forms of these huge birds which had assembled together in large flocks, 
drawn by the superior attractions of the region as a winter resort. They 
appeared very restless; now and then detachments of a dozen or twenty 
members separating themselves from the main body, as they fed among 
the marshy shallows, and shifting their ground from one point along the 
stream to another, or leaving it altogether, and wending their way in 
Indian file toward the stubble fields, a mile or so away’ 1 (1875, p. 468). 
In the early days in California, Doctor Heermann wrote: “In the spring 
I have observed large flocks start from the ground, sail around in exten¬ 
sive circles, gradually rising to a great height, when the signal being 
sounded by one or more of the leaders, they would at once fall into line 
and commence their migration back to the northern regions” (1859 
p. 62). 
Additional Literature.—Bent, A. C., U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 135, 241-254, 
1926— Pearson, T. G., Educational Leaflet 128, Nat. Assoc. Audubon Soc.— 
Taverner, P. A., Birds of Western Canada, 123-124, 1926 (courtship dances, etc.).— 
Torrey, Bradford, Nature's Invitation, 293-294, 1904. 
RAILS, COOTS, etc.: Family Rallidae 
RAILS: Subfamily Rallinae 
The Rails and Coots are marsh-inhabiting birds whose wedge-shaped 
bodies, large strong legs, and short tails enable them to “thread with 
ease the mazes of reedy marshes,” while their long toes serve as snow- 
shoes to keep them from sinking in the mud or floating vegetation, and 
the slight basal membrane usually between the front toes, help them in 
swimming. Their wings are short, rounded, and feeble. The sexes are 
usually alike and seasonal changes in plumage slight. The nest is a 
rude structure placed on the ground or in a tuft of reeds or other herbage; 
the young are hatched clothed. The family, which is an ancient one, 
is rich in fossil species, has some flightless insular varieties, and is 
considered degenerate, several species being threatened with extermina- 
tion. 
Reference— Cooke, W. W., Bull. 128, U. S. Dept. Agr., 1914. 
