Color above olive-grayish, with no strong black markings; cinnamon colored breast. It is an abundant species on nearly all of the marshes along the coast. They are excellent runners, and are very difficult to start from the marsh grass in which they are concealed. Its nest is built on the ground on the higher parts of the marsh, where it is comparatively dry, building it of grass and strips of rushes.
Nest.—They lay from four to nine eggs of a light buff color, spotted and blotched with brown and lilac (1.75 × 1.25). The young of this family are born covered with a shining black down, and remain in the nest but a few hours.
VIRGINIA RAIL.
212. Rallus virginianus. 10 inches.
Back handsomely patterned with black, olive-brown and gray; wing coverts grayish brown, neck and breast cinnamon brown, brightest on the breast. Sides sharply barred with black and white; chin and line over the eye white, side of head slaty color. Like others of this species, it is found in either the fresh or salt marshes, but more abundant in the fresh.
Nest.—Of grasses on the ground or in tufts of rushes; eggs of a creamy white spotted and blotched with brown and lilac; six to ten are the number laid (1.25 × .90).
Range.—North America, breeding from British Columbia to southern California and the Gulf of Mexico.
SORA RAIL.
214. Porzana carolina. 9 inches.