The little yellow rail (Porzana noveboracensis) is found on the fresh waters from central California south, but it is nowhere abundant.
The black rail (Porzana jamaicensis) is another of the smaller rails that are found on the fresh waters to a limited extent. Both this and the last preceding one are so small that they are seldom shot, though as an article of food they are very delicate.
THE SHORE BIRDS
(Order, Limicolae)
The order Limicolae, which is composed of the shore birds proper, is abundantly represented. They are seen wading in the shallow waters, carefully watching for worms, insects and other species of food upon which they live, boring in the soft mud, scurrying in flocks from place to place, or running along the beach as the surf recedes, picking up the jetsam of the sea, then taking wing or running back like a playful child to the higher ground as the foaming crest of the next breaker rushes up the sandy shingle. Or, as is the case of the phalaropes and some others, they may be seen riding lightly upon the restless billows far out at sea. Modest in coloring and plain in plumage, the shore birds seem to belong to the plebeians of the avafauna, for they are constant workers, always busy, always plying their slender legs rapidly as they hurry from one spot to another, never idle, never resting for a moment.
Of the shore birds there are six families and twenty genera represented on the Coast. Most of them are quite abundant from Washington to Mexico on their respective feeding grounds.
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THE WILSON, OR JACK SNIPE
(Gallinago delicata)