RALLUS LONGIROSTRIS CREPITANS : CLAPPER RAIL. 28 1 



1875, having flown on board a vessel (Bull. Nutt Club, 

 ii, 1877, p. 22). This same case is noted by Merriam 

 (Rev. B. Conn., 1877, p. 115) ; by Allen (Bull. Essex 

 Inst., X, 1878, p. 25) ; and by Brewer (Pr. Bost. Soc, xix, 

 1878, p. Z^7)i who, however, misprints the date as " May, 

 1876." The specimen is preserved in the Boston 

 Natural History Society. The second Massachusetts 

 case is furnished by Mr. Brewster, who notes the capture 

 of a Clapper Rail at Plymouth, Mass., late in October, 

 1879 ; it was killed on a salt marsh where another large 

 Rail supposed to be of the same species was also seen 

 (Bull. Nutt. Club, vi, 1881, p. 62). 



We also have authentic advices of the Clapper Rail in 

 Maine, where, according to Mr. N. C. Brown, it appears 

 to be an occasional visitor. " Mr. Samuel Hanson, a 

 gentleman who is perfectly familiar with the species, has 

 given me three instances of its occurrence in the vicinity 

 of Portland. One specimen was killed by himself, in 

 Falmouth, on the 17th of October, 1866, and about the 

 same time two others were noticed in the game-bag of a 

 sportsman of the town. A probable fourth specimen (if 

 correctly identified, doubtless the first killed in the state) 

 was shot by my friend Mr. Luther Redlow, about Sep- 

 tember, 1864."* (Bull. Nutt. Club, iv, 1879, P- 108.) 



* Mr. Brown further states : "A contributor writing from Ports- 

 mouth to tlie defunct ' Country ' [a newspaper of New York] under 

 date of February 14, 1878, noted the capture of a Rallits crepitans 

 at York, Me., in the last week of December, 1875. Since the 

 gentleman chose to conceal his identity under the initial ' E,' I 

 am unable to say under whose sponsorship this record was made, 

 but regard it as probably correct. Mr. Purdie writ3s me that his 

 allusion on page 22, vol. ii, of this Bulletin, to the bird's occurrence 

 in Maine was based on a knowledge of the same specimen, which, 

 he adds, was preserved by Mr. Vickary, of Lynn, Mass." 



