326 'Rrkv.^t^k, A?i Orniihological Mystery. Voa. 



Thus much for the history of a case which, in respect to its 

 clitficulties, is witliout parallel in the experience of those of us who 

 have been engaged in its investigation. In formulating the 

 inferences which its consideration suggests, I shall endeavor to 

 keep well within limits justified by the evidence which, although 

 largely of a circumstantial or even purely negative character, 

 is, nevertheless, not without its value and significance. 



In the first place the habits, haunts and especially the voice 

 of the ' Kicker ' indicate that he is a Rail of some kind. He 

 cannot be either the Carolina or Virginia Rail for Mr. P^axon and 

 I have been long familiar with all the sounds regularly made by 

 these birds. Moreover, the ' Kicker ' has been heard in the 

 Fresh Pond Swamps during one season only, while the Carolina 

 and Virginia Rails are abundant there every summer. The only 

 other Rails known or likely to occur in summer in the fresh 

 water marshes of southern New England are the King and the 

 Little Black Rails. ^ The notes of the King Rail, as described 

 by those who have heard them in the Southern or Mississippi 

 Valley States, are wholly unlike those of our ' Kicker.' Rob- 

 inson, as quoted by Gosse, in ' Birds of Jamaica' (1847, p. 376), 

 says of the Little Black Rail : — " The negroes in Clarendon call 

 it Cacky-qumv, by reason of its cry, which consists of three artic- 

 ulations ; the negroes in Westmoreland call it Johnny Ho, and 

 Kitty Go for the same reason." He also says that two birds which 

 were brought to him alive gave a " very low " cry which '' resem- 

 bled that of a Coot, when at a great distance." Mr. March, on 

 the other hand, states (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1864, p. 69) 

 that the Jamaica bird utters a " chi-chi-cro-croo-croo several times 

 repeated in sharp, high-toned notes, and heard at a considerable 

 distance." None of our ' Kicker's ' utterances so much as even 

 suggest " Cacky-quaw," " Johnny Ho " or " Kitty Go " ; but his 

 kic-kic-kic, ki queeah is not very unlike Mr. March's rendering, and 

 when we consider the local variations to which the notes of so 

 many species of birds are subject, it seems not improbable that 

 the songs of the Little Black Rails which inhabit Jamaica may 



1 There are no good reasons for suspecting that the Yellow Rail ever breeds 

 in any part of New England. 



