2 Wood, Occurrence of the Yellow Rail in Michigan. [jan. 



no localities; and the same is true of Gibbs's paper, 'Annotated 

 List of Michigan Birds' (1879, p. 493), in which he says of this spe- 

 cies: "Rather rare, occasionally taken in spring, probably breeds." 

 The last named writer in an article (1890, p. 230) on the Yellow 

 Rail in Michigan says: "Never until now has my acceptance of the 

 bird as a Michigan species been verified by myself. At dusk on 

 Oct. 19, 1890, as two hunters of renown of this city (Kalamazoo), 

 Messrs. O' Byrne and Francoise, were returning from a snipe shoot 

 they flushed an immature specimen of this interesting little bird 

 from thick grass on low land near water. Noticing it flew pecul- 

 iarly and was a bird new to them they shot it and gave it to me. 

 One mark they noted in particular which may be a point of identi- 

 fication when the bird is on the wing — the white spot on secondaries 

 is plainly to be seen. They say that the bird sprung up with more 

 vigor and flew swifter than the other rails." This specimen is 

 now in the collection of the University of Michigan Museum. 



In A. B. Covert's manuscript notes, now in the University of 

 Michigan Museum, there is a short note on this species as follows: 

 "Sept. 13, 1877, nine specimens were shot near Ann Arbor, of 

 which one was secured by myself, and is now in the University 

 Museum. Rest made a dinner for hunter." This specimen 

 cannot be found, but there is little doubt as to the validity of the 

 record. In his list of the birds of Washtenaw County, Mr. Covert 

 (1881, p. 191) writes of the species as follows: "Porzana nove- 

 boracensis: a rare migrant." 



In reply to a letter requesting additional data on the occurrence 

 of the species within our limits, Prof. Walter B. Barrows, Michigan 

 Agricultural College, has kindly sent me the following notes: 

 "One or two were taken in muskrat traps at Vicksburg, Michigan, 

 by D. Corwin of that place; another specimen was picked up 

 mutilated and too much decomposed for preservation, in the center 

 of Kalamazoo City, about the middle of Sept., 1900. This speci- 

 men was doubtless killed by flying against the telephone wires 

 (Dr. M. Gibbs, The Bittern, Grand Rapids, 1901, p. 4). Dr. 

 Gibbs also records another specimen taken in autumn (date not 

 specified) near Kalamazoo, by Wm. O'Byrne (Bull. Mich. Orn. 

 Club, II, 1898, p. 7) [probably the same specimen referred to by 

 Gibbs (1890, p. 230)]; and there is a mounted specimen in the 



