2 22 BKEWiiTRR, An Ornitkolog-ical Mystery. Voa 



In the course of the following fortnight, most of which Mr. 

 Faxon and I devoted to searching for ' Kickers,' two more birds 

 were heard in another part of the Fresh Pond Swamps, two in the 

 meadows bordering Beaver Brook (one near the Waverly Oaks, 

 the other in Rock Meadow, Belmont) , one on the edge of Great 

 Meadow, East Lexington, three in the Neponset River meadows 

 near Readville, one on the banks of the Sudbury River just above 

 Concord, andyfzv in a meadow near the mouth of West Brook in 

 Sudbury. 



Most of the birds just mentioned were in very wet meadows or 

 swamps, either among the wild grasses which grow so luxuriantly 

 in such places, or in beds of tall rushes or cat-tail flags. We 

 sometimes heard them in the early forenoon or late afternoon and 

 once or twice at high noon, when the sun was shining brightly. 

 As a rule, however, they did not begin calling before sunset and 

 were seldom in full cry until twilight had fallen, after which their 

 notes were uttered almost incessantly, at short, regular intervals, 

 certainly far into the night and probably up to daybreak the next 

 morning. From this it will appear that their haunts were similar 

 to those of the Carolina and Virginia Rails and their periods of 

 greatest activity to an even larger degree, nocturnal. 



Their voices, also, were unmistakably rail-like. Their notes 

 varied considerably in number — as well as somewhat in form and 

 quality — not only with different birds but with the same individ- 

 ual at different times. The commonest forms were as follows : — 



Kik-kik-kik, queeah. 



Kik-kik-kik, ki-qneeah. 



Kik-ki-ki-ki, ki-qiieeah . 



Kic-kic, k}c-kic\ k)c-kic, kic-kic\ ki-qiieeah. 



The kic-kic notes were very like those which the Virginia Rail 

 uses to call together her scattered young, but they were at least 

 thrice as loud. Although usually given in rather rapid succession 

 they were sometimes divided by distinct if short intervals 

 (indicated above by commas) into groups of twos or occasionally 

 of threes. These pauses gave them the effect of being uttered 

 with a certain degree of hesitancy or in a tentative spirit, as if the 

 bird were clearing its throat or attuning its voice to exactly the 

 right pitch before venturing on what was evidently his supreme 



