lis C II. Merriiiin — Birds of Connect lent. 



directs the l)oat forward and picks it up while the gunner is loading. 



In this manner the boat moves steadily througli and over 



the reeds, the birds flushing and falling, the gunner loading and 



firing, while the boatman is pushing and picking up In 



these excursions it is not uncommon for an active and expert marks- 

 man to kill ten or twelve dozen in a tide !"* Mr. Grinnell informs 

 me that the same method of hunting is practiced on the marshes 

 bordering the Housatonic River, Conn. 



224. Porzana Noveboracensis (Gmelin) Cassin. Yellow Rail. 



Not connnon. Taken at Stratford, Conn., bv Linsley. Though 

 one of the rarer birds, it breeds about Middletown, Conn., as I am 

 informed by Mr. Coe, who took it there in 1874 and 1875. Mr. Tlios. 

 Osborne has a specimen killed near New Haven. Mr. Grinnell favors 

 me with the following note concerning its occurrence on the marshes 

 near Milford, Conn. : 



l)i:Ait Mkkriam— The specimens of P<>rzan<i Novehoracensh about 

 which you enquii'e were taken for the most part during tlie month of 

 October, 18*76, although I procured one individual as late as Nov. 

 10th. The securing of the first two or three was quite accidental. 



I was Avorking a young setter on Snipe ( Ga^mago Wilsoni) on a 

 piece of wet meadow near Milford, Conn., and several times during 

 the early part of the day was annoyed by the pertinacious way in 

 which the dog would trail up some bird which neither he nor I could 

 start. At length during one of these performances 1 saw the pu})py 

 grasp at something in the bogs before him, and immediately a small 

 Rail rose and fluttered a few yards. Noticing its small size, and the 

 fact that it had some white on its wings, and seeing from its flight 

 that it was a Rail, I shot the bird before it had gone far, and when it 

 was brought by the dog I was delighted to see that it was P. Nove- 

 horacensis, a species which I had never before seen alive. Dux'ing 

 the daj'' several more individuals were secured. The next oppor- 

 tunity that I had of looking for these birds was, I think, Oct. 14th. 

 That day my bi-other and I secured eight in an hour or two. They 

 Avere ridiculously tame and Avould run along before the dog, creeping 

 into the holes in the bogs and hiding there while we tried in vain to 

 start them. I killed one with my dog whij), caught one alive in my 

 hand, and the dog brought me another, uninjured, which he had 



* Wilson's American Ornithology, vol. iii, p. 115, ISol. 



