172 General Notes. rea 
“6. July 12, 1894. Seven eggs; incubation advanced. Nest in tussock 
of coarse grass, made of dead grass and bull-rush leaves. 
‘*7, August, 10, 1898. Six eggs; small embryos.” —H. H. & C. S. 
Brimley.— W1iTMER STONE, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, 
Pa. 
Breeding of the Little Black Rail (Purzana jamaicensts) in New Jersey 
in 1844 and 1845.— Soon after the above note was written, by a curious 
coincident I came across a definite account of the breeding of this bird in 
New Jersey. Apart from a bare statement of the fact in Turnbull’s 
‘Birds of East Pennsylvania and New Jersey,’ the record seems not to 
have been published. 
The facts are contained in letters written by Chas. C. Ashmead of 
Philadelphia to Prof. Baird, and for the privilege of publishing them I 
am indebted to Miss Lucy H. Baird. The extracts relative to the Black 
Rail are as follows: 
July 28, 1844.— ‘My brother-in-law has just arrived from the seashore. 
Not long since he found a nest of the Black Rail; it was on a fresh water 
meadow near the seaside, and contained four eggs. He also caught the 
bird.” 
Oct. 2, 1844.— “I have the eggs of the Black Rail, also the full-plum- 
aged male bird, in my possession.” 
Nov. 17, 1845.—‘‘Tom Beesley has found another nest of the Black 
Rail, making the third he has found. The two first nests he found, one 
early in June, 1844, with four eggs; one early in June, 1845, with three 
eggs; andthe last one about the middle of August, with but one egg in 
the nest. He had killed the bird before he found the nest. All three of 
the nests were found on the same spot of ground, —a fresh marsh on the 
banks of the Great Egg Harbor River, and not more than one fourth as 
big as the College Campus [at Carlisle].” 
The locality was evidently Beesley’s Point, and a brief mention of the 
spotting on the bird leaves no doubt of its identity. The fact, however, 
that Mr. Ashmead and his brother were constantly at the Academy at this 
time, and in daily association with Mr Cassin, would preclude the possi- 
bility of any error in identification. The discovery that this obscure 
little bird still breeds in this locality is well within the limits of possi- 
bility—WirMmer Stoner, Academy of Natural Sctences, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Occurrence of Tringa fuscicollis in Virginia in Autumn.— During a 
visit to the Eastern Shore of Virginia in company with Dr. William C. 
Rives, Sept. 21-28, 1899, a specimen of the White-rumped Sandpiper was 
secured near Chincoteague, Va., on the sand flats lying inside the beach 
of Assateague Island on Sept. 24. The bird was shot as it flew past with 
a flock of Semipalmated Sandpipers, among which it was conspicuous by 
reason of its larger size. It was the only individual of this species 
Observed on the trip. This species appears in Dr. Rives’s ‘ Birds of the 
