ie Auten, The Little Black Rail. 4 
Rail from North Carolina, the latter as breeding in Buncombe 
“County (O. & OO}, XIV, Feb., 1889, p: 17): There are various 
accounts of its breeding in Kansas, where the late Col. N. S. 
Goss gives it as a rare summer resident, arriving about the middle 
of March to the first of April, nesting in May, and returning south 
in October (Birds of Kansas, 1891, p. 142). Its manner of 
occurrence in Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio has been well sum- 
marized by Mr. A. W. Butler in his ‘Birds of Indiana’ (1897, 
pp. 679-681). 
The Little Black Rail selects for its nesting place, as would be 
expected, a wet, grassy meadow, either fresh or salt according to 
whether the locality is in the interior or on the seacoast. Both 
Mr. Clark and Mr. Nelson have noted its general resemblance to 
the nest of thé Meadowlark, and describe it as “ consisting of fine 
meadow grasses loosely put together, with a covering of the stand- 
ing grasses woven over it and a passage and entrance at one side” 
(Clark) ; or as ‘composed of soft grass blades, loosely interwoven 
in a circular manner,” and “placed in a deep cup-shaped depres- 
sion in a perfectly open situation on the border of a marshy spot, 
and its only concealment was such as a few straggling carices 
afforded’”’ (Nelson). ‘The nest, as in other species, thus appears 
to vary with locality and the natural surroundings. A full set of 
eggs appears to number nine or ten, and are said by Mr. Clark 
to greatly resemble, in size and color, those of the Meadowlark, 
but to differ in being of a dull white (‘‘ creamy white,” Mr. Nelson 
says), instead of clear white, with the spots and markings rather 
smaller. They average about 1.00 by .80 in. in size. According 
to Mr. Nelson’s experience, the eggs were placed in two layers, 
owing to the small size of the nest, which had an inside diameter 
Of 3.25) in: 
The secretive habits of the Little Black Rail are well illustrated 
by Mr. Clark’s attempt to secure the female, with his set of the 
eggs of this species. He says: “I devoted the whole day to 
this special end, and visited the nest about every half hour 
through the day, approaching it with every possible caution, and 
having a little tuft of cotton directly over the nest to indicate the 
exact spot; but although I tried it from every quarter with the 
utmost diligence and watchfulness, I was never able to obtain 
