290 RALLID.E : RAILS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



little Crake, which has only been lately determined to visit 

 us at all. It appears to have been first definitely added to 

 our Fauna by Dr. Brewer, who notes it as a rare summer 

 resident, and cites Hazenville, Conn. (Pr. Bost. Soc, 

 xvii, 1875, p. 447). The next we hear of it is from Mr. 

 Purdie, who adduces another Connecticut instance, and 

 adds a Massachusetts case. " Of this species Mr. Clark, 

 of Saybrook, Conn., writes me that a neighbor of his, 

 while mowing at that place, July 10, 1876, swung his 

 scythe over a nest of ten eggs on which the bird was 

 sitting, unfortunately cutting off the bird's head and 

 breaking all but four of the eggs (Bull. Nutt. Club, ii, 

 1877, p. 22). These eggs, later inspected by Merriam, 

 are said to agree precisely with Coues' description, 

 " being creamy-white, sprinkled all over with fine dots of 

 rich, bright reddish-brown " {Rev. B. Conn., 1877, p. 

 119). Mr. Purdie also states in the same communica- 

 tion, that he had seen a specimen which was picked 

 up dead on Clark's Island, Plymouth Harbor, Mass., in 

 August, 1869. This specimen is the same one men- 

 tioned by Mr. Browne in Forest and Stream, viii, 1877, 

 p. 33. Another one, to which, however, some doubt is 

 attached, is noted by Mr. Curtis, in the paper last cited, 

 p. 129 ; see Bailey, Forest and Stream Bird Notes, 1882, 

 p. 124. Dr. Brewer speaks of the species as " not at all 

 uncommon in Connecticut," but upon what other au- 

 thority than the records we have here adduced does not 

 appear (Pr. Bost. Soc, xix, 1878, p. 307). It is really a 

 bird of South and Central America and the West Indies, 

 the occurrence of which in the United States is in most 

 localities infrequent and irregular. 



