. Feathered game of the Northeast . ration is grayish or yellowish-brown. Itsl^lumage with its blending colors lacks thebright tones of reds and browns sharply con-trasted with the blacks as they appear in theVirginia. In the breeding season these birds are verynoisy and keep up a continual clatter, whencetheir name. A dweller in the marshes, mainlythose of the seacoast, he is found all along theAtlantic seaboard of the United States, as farnorth as New England during the breeding sea-son, and spending the winter months in theSouthern States and even farther toward thetropics. This species is
. Feathered game of the Northeast . ration is grayish or yellowish-brown. Itsl^lumage with its blending colors lacks thebright tones of reds and browns sharply con-trasted with the blacks as they appear in theVirginia. In the breeding season these birds are verynoisy and keep up a continual clatter, whencetheir name. A dweller in the marshes, mainlythose of the seacoast, he is found all along theAtlantic seaboard of the United States, as farnorth as New England during the breeding sea-son, and spending the winter months in theSouthern States and even farther toward thetropics. This species is far more abundant inits southern range than elsewhere. Their nesting habits are much as in the otherspecies; a little above the high tide level a sortof platform of reeds and dry grasses matted to-gether just out of the water constitutes the contains anywhere from six to ten eggs,in color creamy white, freckled with red-brownspots. The adult bird is of brownish-olive hue above,with dusky streaks through the centres of the. < a THE VIRGINIA RAIL 229 feathers, these colors fading to a grayish tingeon the edges. Everywhere the colors are dulland uncertain, shading and blending graduallyone into the other. Below, a pale yellowishbrown, growing grayish on the throat. Flanks,axillars and linings of the wings dusky graywith small narrow bars of white. The wholetone of the bird is ashy gray. Wing quills andtail dark brown; eyelid and a small line overthe eye white. Legs and feet dull from fourteen to sixteen inches; extentabout twenty inches; female a little less. Beingmore of an animal feeder than is the sora itsflavor is hardly as good as that of the morecommon bird, though by no means to be de-spised. THE VIRGINIA RAIL. (Rallus virginianus.) Inhabiting the same territory as the sora, orCarolina rail,—though preferring those spotswhere the fresh water springs bubble upthrough the mucky ooze of the marsh,—is thenext most numerous species, the Virginia
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Keywords: ., boo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectgameandgamebirds
