. The birds of California : a complete, scientific and popular account of the 580 species and subspecies of birds found in the state. Birds; Birds. The Sora Rail swamp, but usually in a rather open situation. Sometimes a tussock of grass is used, and the growing blades curl over to conceal this anchored ark of bulrushes. The Sora is a little more prolific than her cousin, the Virginia, a dozen eggs being commonly found, and fourteen and fifteen not infrequently. In the latter case the eggs are apt to be in two layers. The ochraceous cast of the ground-color is unmistakable, and the spots are b
. The birds of California : a complete, scientific and popular account of the 580 species and subspecies of birds found in the state. Birds; Birds. The Sora Rail swamp, but usually in a rather open situation. Sometimes a tussock of grass is used, and the growing blades curl over to conceal this anchored ark of bulrushes. The Sora is a little more prolific than her cousin, the Virginia, a dozen eggs being commonly found, and fourteen and fifteen not infrequently. In the latter case the eggs are apt to be in two layers. The ochraceous cast of the ground-color is unmistakable, and the spots are both more numerous and of a duller brown than those of R. virgini- anus. Nothing could be at once more interest- ing and more comical than the appearance of a young Sora just out of the shell. He is, to begin with, a ball of down as black as jet, and he has a most ridiculous tuft of orange chin whiskers. Add to this a bright red protuberance at the base of the upper mandible and an air of defiance, and you have a very clown. And such precocity! Once, in a secluded spot, I came upon a nestful at the critical time. Hearing my distant footsteps most of the brood had taken to their new-found heels, leaving two luckless wights in ova. At my approach one more prison door flew open. The absurd fluff-ball rolled out, shook itself, grasped the situation, promptly tumbled over the side of the nest, and started to swim across a six-foot pool to safety. A lifetime of prowling in the swamps will not give a person any ade- quate conception of the total number of Sora Rails. From the migrations, however, we are able to guess that it must be enormous. During the mi- grations, which take place at night, the birds straggle over the landscape at low elevation and quite irrespective of the fly-lines observed by many other species. As a consequence, many Soras fall victim to telephone wires or even barb-wire fences; and not a few are picked up in town in the street or in the garden, or wherever dawn
Size: 1984px × 1260px
Photo credit: © Library Book Collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1923
