Rallus limicola
Order Gruiformes
Family Rallidae
Adult.— Top of head and back rich brown, streaked with black; sides of head ash-gray; line from bill to eye white, above a blackish stripe; part of the wings rich reddish-brown; under parts a warm brown; lower belly black, barred with white; bill long, slightly curved.
Immature.— Upper parts much as in adult; throat and line down the middle of the lower parts whitish; rest of under parts blackish.
Nest, a platform of grass or sedge in a tuft of grass or sedge.
Eggs, pale buffy-white, spotted and speckled with reddish-brown.
The Virginia Rail is a summer resident of New York and New England, common in the southern and central portions of the region. It arrives in April, and stays till October; it winters sparingly from Cape Cod southward. It inhabits fresh water marshes and wet meadows, particularly where cat-tails abound, and is often associated with the Carolina Rail [Sora], many of whose habits it shares. When seen, the long bill and the rich, reddish-brown of its wings and underparts distinguish it from its relative. Its notes, too, are quite distinct. They consist of a low monotonous call, like the syllables cut-ta, cut’-ta, and a series of more startling notes, wak, wak, wak, each note lower than the preceding, like the grunting of little pigs. In summer, when the old bird is followed by the young, she utters, when alarmed, a note like the syllable kip.
Hoffmann – A Guide to the Birds of New England and Eastern New York (1904)