Home › R › Range (Breeds from Kansas Illinois)

Range (Breeds from Kansas Illinois)

Breeds from Kansas, Illinois, and Long Island northward to Hudson Bay; winters from South Carolina to northern South America. Washington, common T. V., Mch.; July to Nov. Long Island, common T. v., Apl. and May; Aug. to Oct.; rare S. R. Sing Sing, common T. V., May; Aug. 19 to Oct. 24. Cambridge, very common S. R., Apl. 20 to Oct. 20.

Nest, of grasses, on the ground in marshes. Eggs, eight to fifteen, buffy white or ochraceous-buff, spotted and speckled with rufous-brown, 1.24 x 90. The Soras' summer home is in fresh-water marshes, where, if it were not for their notes, the reeds and grasses would long keep the secret of their presence. But knowing their calls, you have only to pass a May or June evening near a marsh to learn whether they inhabit it. If there, they will greet you late in the afternoon with a clear whistled ker-wee, which soon comes from dozens of invisible birds about you, and long after night has fallen it continues like a springtime chorus of piping hylas. Now and again it is interrupted by a high-voiced, rolling whinny which, like a call of alarm, is taken up and repeated by different birds all over the marsh. They seem so absorbed by their musical devotions that even when calling continuously it requires endless patience and keen eyes to see the dull-colored, motionless forms in places where one would not suppose there was sufficient growth to conceal them. Floating silently near the shore on my back in a canoe, I have seen them venture out to feed. With tails erect they step gingerly along, evidently aware of their exposed position, for on the least alarm they dart back to cover. Sometimes they cross small streams by swimming, and they are expert divers. In the fall they gather in the wild-rice or wild-oat (Zizania aquatica) marshes, and a well-directed stone or unusual noise may bring a series of protesting interrogative kuks or peeps from the apparently deserted reeds. At this season "gunners" in small flat-bottomed boats are poled through the flooded meadows, and the Soras, waiting until the last moment, rise on feeble wing-a mark which few can miss. Numerous puffs of smoke float over the tall grasses, and the dull reports come booming across the marsh with fateful frequency. RAILS, GALLINULES, AND COOTS.

The SPOTTED CRAKE (213. Porzana porzana)-an Old World representative of our Sora-is recorded as "occasional in Greenland." 215. Porzana noveboracensis (Gmel.). YELLOW RAIL. (See Fig. 22, b.) Ad.-Upper parts black, the feathers bordered with ochraceous-buff and with from one to three narrow white bars; breast ochraceous-buff; middle of the belly white; sides and lower belly black or brownish, barred with white. L., 7.00; W., 3·40; Tar., 95; B., 52.