March 31, 1902 Vol. Ill, pp. 79-80 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



NEW ENGLAND ZOOLOGICAL CLUB 



ON THE OCCURRENCE OF CORY'S LEAST BITTERN 



(ARDETTA NEOXENA) IN EASTERN 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



BY WILLIAM BRLWSTER. 



Dr. Frederic N. Damon of Roxbury, Massachusetts, has 

 kindly given me permission to announce that he killed a Cory's 

 Least Bittern at Scituate, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, last 

 May. The circumstances attending its capture were most inter- 

 esting and peculiar. Dr. Damon is fond of shooting and he has a 

 collection of about three hundred birds, most of which were killed 

 and mounted by himself. He spends his summers at Scituate, 

 where he has a small place close to the water and near the main 

 road. On the morning of May 18, 1901, he was at work in the 

 barn, when his father, Mr. C. A. Damon, called to him that there 

 was a 'Water Rail ' in the yard. He ran out immediately, but it 

 flew around the corner of the house before he could get a sight at 

 it. A moment later it reappeared and, after passing directly over 

 the veranda and just above the stone walls that border the road, 

 alighted in a field beyond. Cetting his gun, Dr. Damon hastened 

 to the spot, where he came upon the bird crouching close to the 

 ground with its bill pointing upward toward the sun. He 

 approached within a few feet, when it took wing and he shot it. 



