Part 12

The loud, barking qua of the Night Heron as it rises from its fishing-ground and flies over after nightfall is a startling sound. The species may be identified easily from this sound alone.

Immature birds look somewhat like a Bittern, but the Bittern is a bird of the ground, rarely alighting in trees, whereas the Night Heron, after being frightened from a retreat along the shore, usually alights on a high branch.

Night Herons sometimes circle over the water, snatching their food from the surface, like gulls. As a rule, such activities are noted only during the nesting season, however, when the young have to be fed. When there are no family duties, they prefer to hunt at night.

The heavy bill and habit of perching with neck drawn in gives the bird a characteristic appearance at a distance.

The nesting colony, while interesting to the bird-student, is offensively filthy and has a disagreeable odor. The young, when newly hatched, give forth a peculiar, chuckling peep which has a somewhat ventriloquistic quality. As they develop they clamber about the branches, using their necks, wings, and bills in crawling from perch to perch.

KING RAIL Rallus elegans elegans Audubon

Description.—The largest of our rails, about the size of a crow, but with slenderer body; sexes similar. Upperparts dark brown, feathers of the back and scapulars widely margined with olive-gray; wings and tail olive-brown; throat and areas in front of and above eye, white; neck and breast rich reddish brown, much like the breast of a robin; sides and flanks dark brown, or blackish, sharply and widely barred with white; bill dull reddish yellow, tipped with black; feet dull reddish; eyes bright red. Immature birds are darker and less handsomely marked. Length: 15 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A rare, local migrant, probably occasional as a summer resident. It nests only in marshy sections. Nesting records are very desirable. It is to be found from April 15 to mid-September.

The King Rail, though a rather large bird, is so rare and retiring that it is rarely seen, and Pennsylvania records are few. It has been noted chiefly in the less mountainous counties and is apparently commoner in the fall, when the gunners sometimes take the bird. King Rails are weak fliers; sometimes they drop exhausted in the middle of a city and residents are startled at seeing a queer bird on the streets.

VIRGINIA RAIL Rallus virginianus Linnæus

Description.—Size of robin; sexes similar. Upperparts dark brown or black, the feathers edged with olive-brown or gray; wings and tail dark brown, reddish brown on coverts; forepart of superciliary line and throat, white; cheeks grayish; underparts reddish brown, save on flanks and under tail-coverts which are black or dark gray, sharply barred with white; bill and feet reddish; eyes red. Immature birds are darker throughout and the red-brown of the underparts is replaced by blackish, mixed with white. Length: 9½ inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A fairly regular but local summer resident, sometimes common, from April 15 to September 30. It nests only in marshy situations, where it lives among cat-tails or other aquatic vegetation.

Nest.—Of cat-tail leaves or grasses, made in a cup, placed at the base of water-plants on the ground, or a short distance above the water, usually well sheltered from above, sometimes by a canopy of cat-tail leaves which has been arranged by the parents. Eggs: 6 to 11, buffy white, spotted with dark or reddish brown.

The pig-like grunts and squawks of a pair of Virginia Rails may bewilder the casual wayfarer near a cat-tail marsh. Rails are rarely seen but may appear along one of the open waterways if the observer remains motionless and silent.

SORA RAIL Porzana carolina (Linnæus)

Other Names.—Ortolan; Reed Bird; Carolina Rail.

Description.—Smaller than a robin; bill rather short; sexes similar. Adults: Center of crown, region at base of bill back to eye, and broad line down chin and throat, black; front of crown, sides of head, and rest of throat and breast, ashy gray, a tiny white spot back of eye; upper-parts olive-brown, the feathers with blackish centers, those of the back and scapulars narrowly but sharply edged with white; wings dark brown, the coverts somewhat lighter; belly and sides of under tail-coverts white; bill yellow; feet green; eyes brown. Immature birds are similar but lack all black on face and throat; the breast and neck are washed with cinnamon-brown, rather than gray, and the upperparts are darker. Length: 8 inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—Fairly common and regular as a migrant; locally abundant from April 25 to May 15 and from August 25 to October 15; occurs as a summer resident wherever marshes furnish it a nesting-site. It is not common as a breeding species.

Nest.—A crude cup made of dead cat-tail leaves or grass, arched over and well concealed by surrounding marsh vegetation. Eggs: 8 to 16, buffy, spotted with brown.

The Sora is a weak-winged bird and during migration often flies so low that it strikes itself against wires. These injured birds are often the only individuals of this retiring species which are seen by Pennsylvania bird students, unless the cat-tail marshes, where the birds nest, are visited and penetrated.

In the home of the Sora many strange call-notes are to be heard when the birds are curious or disturbed. Some of these notes are sweet and musical; others are strange and hardly bird-like. One call, which is a series of rapidly descending notes, is characteristic.

The Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis) is smaller than the Sora and is rich buffy yellow with dark, streaked upperparts. It is exceedingly rare, in fact, virtually unknown, save at Erie and in the marshes about Philadelphia, where it occurs chiefly as a migrant. Additional records are very desirable.

The tiny Black Rail (Creciscus jamaicensis jamaicensis) is about as large as an English Sparrow, and is dark brown, sprinkled with white above, with a red-brown mantle from nape down neck, and dark ashy gray below, with barred flanks and red eyes. The Black Rail has been noted but a few times in Pennsylvania. Additional records are very desirable.

FLORIDA GALLINULE Gallinula chloropus cachinnans Bangs

Other Name.—Mud Hen.

Description.—Smaller than crow; bill of medium length; general appearance rail-like; sexes similar. Adults: Head, neck, upper back and underparts slaty gray, darker on crown and face; a row of white streaks along sides and indistinct bars of white on the belly; lower back and wings olive-brown, richest on scapulars and tail; under tail-coverts white laterally, black in middle; bill, with frontal shield, red, and yellow tip; feet greenish yellow, with red area on tibiæ just above heel; eyes red-brown. Immature: Similar but with underparts whitish, no red on legs, and bill brown, with small frontal shield. Length: 13½ inches.

Range in Pennsylvania.—A rather rare migrant during mid-spring and early fall; rare and local as a summer resident.

Nest.—A crude cup of dead cat-tail leaves, placed on the ground or above the water, among water-plants. Eggs: 3 to 10, buffy, finely spotted with brown.