106 NOTES ON THE 



the most abundant species of the Rails which spend their sum- 

 mers in nearly all parts of Minnesota. In speaking of his 

 observations of this species in the Red river valley Mr. Wash- 

 burn says: — "They are extremely abundant everywhere in the 

 marshes and sloughs. During the summer, one only catches 

 occasional glimpses of them, although their crek, crok, crek, is 

 heard everywhere in the reeds. In September, however, I 

 find the young and old birds more easily observed, there being 

 more of them, and consequently they are less shy. They are 

 then seen running over the reedy surface of the ponds, and 

 slipping in and out among the rushes and reeds that fringe the 

 shores." The same gentleman found them still common in the 

 meadows of Otter Tail county between October 9th and Novem- 

 ber 10th. Mr. Westhoven told him he had often captured 

 them when mowing in the meadow, by placing his two hands 

 quickly over the spot in the grass where he had seen them go 

 down, the grass holding them effectually without injuring 

 them. 



Few but those who are specially interested are apt to notice 

 the little busy Carolina Rails, so well concealed do they 

 keep themselves in the presence of man, but after one has the 

 secret of their habits he may easily find and make his notes 

 in their closest proximity. 



In the early history of Minneapolis a fifteen minutes' walk 

 in almost any direction, just after sunset, would place the Rail- 

 hunter in its haunts, and again the same in the gray of the 

 morning. Amongst the later haunts in which I have found 

 it abundant for its kind is one along the northwestern shores 

 of Lake Calhoun (Mendoza?) where a narrow tamarack swamp 

 touches it for a distance of about 100 yards, and another about 

 a mile west of the Falls of Minnehaha. 



Mr. Efell, who had been spending some time in the vicinity 

 of Moorhead late in the summer, became very much interested 

 in their local habits from finding their nests to be quite com- 

 mon in the cultivated fields, especially the corn fields; the 

 nest was degenerated to a simple depression in the soft earth, 

 with a slight lining of weeds, of which there were generally 

 an abundance. This seemed quite remarkable to one who 

 cannot see through evolution, but it shows that when we have 

 written up the natural history of the world, we shall need to 

 do it all over again every season or two. 



