96 General Notes. [£ a u n k 



When I cited 1 the record in my list of the birds of Portland and vicinity, 

 but one such Rail had been noted, 2 and that was shot in Scarborough. 

 Now, however, there are two records 3 of King Rails from the very marsh 

 on which Mr. Hanson found his birds. On the other hand, no Clapper 

 Rails have been detected there or elsewhere in the vicinity of Portland 

 since his identification was made. While the possibility that he was 

 right remains, the probability that he was mistaken is so strong that I 

 have felt obliged to call attention to it. 



There is also to be considered a rail shot "about September, 1864" by 

 Mr. Luther Redlon, and referred to in the original notice of Mr. Hanson's 

 birds as "a probable" Clapper Rail, but not mentioned in my Portland 

 list. If we adopt the hypothesis that the latter were King Rails, it can 

 scarcely be doubted that the former was of the same species, and we are 

 left without evidence that Rallus crepitans has occurred near Portland. — 

 Nathan Clifford Brown, Portland, Me. 



A Wounded Sora's Long Swim. — While superintending the unloading 

 of brick schooners at the Mt. Loretto dock, Pleasant Plains, Staten Island, 

 N. Y., on September 20, 1906, I saw what I presumed to be a terrapin 

 swimming along with the current of the ebbing tide. I sculled out in a 

 small boat in order to investigate, and was surprised to find that the sup- 

 posed turtle was a Sora Rail (Porzana Carolina). As the boat drew near 

 it beat the water frantically with its wings and made every effort to escape, 

 but when finally captured, manifested a disposition to defend itself, and 

 repeatedly struck my hands and fingers with its bill. 



I confined the bird in a crate on one of the schooners, where a number 

 of Sicilian laborers gathered around it, and signified their desire to make 

 a meal of it. One of the laborers thrust a finger between the slats of the 

 crate, and to my astonishment the rail rushed toward it with opened bill. 

 In fact it showed little fear of human beings, pugnaciously resisting every 

 intrusion, but when a small dog belonging on the vessel, approached and 

 barked at it, the bird retreated in apparent terror to the opposite side 

 of the crate. 



A decided drooping of the Sora's right wing explained its disablement. 

 It died within a few hours, and when I skinned it I found the muscles on 

 the right side of the sternum badly bruised, and clothed with blood, as if 

 the bird had flown forcibly against some hard Object. 



Judging from the direction from which the Sora had come, it must 

 have swam all the way across Raritan Bay from the salt marshes near Jack- 

 sonville, New Jersey, a distance of at least nine miles. — - Robert C. Murphy, 

 Mt. Sinai, Long Island, N. Y. 



i.Proc. Port. Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. II, 1882, p. 30. 



2 Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, Vol. VII, p. 60. 



3 Brock, Auk, XIII, p. 79; ibid., XIX, p. 285. 



