- 1915 J General Notes. 95 



settled down for a sleep. It may be said that the only time the 

 rail seemed perfectly satisfied was during the hour following the 

 consumption of these two snakes. After the hour, however, it was 

 ready once more for food, though evidently not particularly 

 hungry. 



Attempts were made to feed the rail on a less carnivorous diet, 

 but all proffered rice and cracked corn was refused, even when the 

 bird showed marked signs of hunger. Finely chopped liver was 

 likewise ignored, and small pieces of bread were merely played with. 



GENERAL NOTES. 



Concealing Posture of Grebes. — The note under this heading in the 

 last number of ' The Auk ' by Mr. Delos E. Culver recalls to my memory a 

 similar and yet different experience with a Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus 

 podiceps) on August 22, 1911. Near Addison, Illinois, is a slough of about 

 five acres area and around the edge a fringe of open water, which is two to 

 four feet deep in spring, but becomes shallower as the season progresses, 

 until, in very warm summer, there is sometimes no water left. In the 

 center is a large area grown up with rushes, tall sedges and marsh grasses. 

 On the above-named day I went into this slough, crossed the open water, 

 which now had almost disappeared, then through the large grassy center 

 space. When near the farther edge of this. I noticed a grebe, which was 

 frantically trying to hide itself. Had I come from the shore near which it 

 was, it would have had no difficulty in getting into the grassy wilderness 

 in the center, but since I came from the other direction, it could not do so 

 without being in my vision. When all attempts at diving proved unavail- 

 ing, it nevertheless suddenly disappeared from view, although I was only 

 fifteen feet from it. Trying to get to the bottom of this remarkable 

 phenomenon, I looked closely and saw that it had swum as closely as possi- 

 ble to a small tussock of grass and stretched its neck and upper part of the 

 body over this. The color of its plumage matching well in general effect 

 the brown and green of the grass, the bird became next to invisible. It 

 remained in this position until I approached to within about \ ten feet, 

 when it splashed away and performed the same maneuver on another 

 tussock. — C. W. G. Eifrig, River Forest, III. 



The Double-crested Cormorant in the Chicago Area. — November 

 20, 1914, I saw a Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax dilophus dilo- 



