74 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



pleasing, and other voices, all of whose owners are invisible among the cat-tails, 

 take up the refrain. One is tempted to consider this the nu])tial song, but I am 

 inclined to think the one previously described is the real one, and the whinny is 

 an alarm or complaining or perhaps a gossipy call. 



Since the cat-tails have been largely drowned and cut out at Sagamore Pond 

 the rails, like the mosquitoes, have greatly diminished in numbers. 



91 [215] Coturnicops noveboracensis (Gmel.). 



Yellow Rail. 



Rare transient visitor. September 30 to October 13. 



[216] Creciscus jamaicensis (Gmel.). Black Rail. — This is still "vox praeterea 

 nihil," as in tlie original Memoir. 



92 [218] lonorhis martinicus (Linn.). 

 Purple Gallinule. 

 Accidental visitor from the South. 

 There have been no additions to the six original records. 



93 [219] Gallinula galeata (Licht.). 



Florida Gallinule. 

 Rare summer resident. March 20 to October 12. 



In the original Memoir I suspected that this bird might be a summer resident, 

 and am now inclined to believe that that is the case although I have no definite 

 records of breeding. 



Damsell^ has two records confirmed by specimens of birds taken near Ames- 

 bury, September 14, 1887, and October 3, 1903, respectively. Another was shot 

 in the Topsfield meadows by Mr. Julian M. Dodge in Setember, 1906. One was 

 shot at Sagamore Pond, Ipswich, on September 16, 1914, by Mr. David L. Rich- 

 ardson ; this is now in my collection. A second was shot at the same place on 

 October 3, 1914, and a third was seen by me there on October 12, 1914. It is a 

 small bird as compared with .a Coot, but it swims in the same way with nodding 

 head. A capital distinguishing point in the fall is the slaty-blue bill of the galli- 

 nule ; the Coot has an ivory-white bill. 



1 Allen, G. M. Auk, vol. 30, p. 23, 1913. 



