DuTCiiER on LoiiiT Island Birds. 



177 



struck the light on the east side of the tower. If it was migrating nortii- 

 ward, it should have struck the tower on the west side, the trend of the 

 Island being about east and west, but striking on the opposite side indi- 

 cates that it only struck after circling about the light. * 



11. Porzana noveboracensis. Yellow Rail. — Mr. Giraud savs : 

 "Notwithstanding this species is but seldom met with on Long Island, I am 

 not inclined to think it so exceedingly rare in this vicinity as it is generally 

 supposed. Its habits of skulking among the tall grass and reeds that 

 overgrow the wet and but seldom frequented marshes, as well as its 

 unwillingness to take wing, may, I think, in a measure account for its 

 apparent extreme scarcity with us."t 



Mr. A. A. Fraser sent to me April 29, 18S7, ^ specimen of this species 

 which his dog caught alive. As his account of the occurrence is very 

 interesting, corroborating fully the statements of Mr. Giraud and Dr. 

 Grinnell regarding the difficulty of flushing this Rail, I give it in full : 

 "They are very hard to get, as it is almost impossible to make them take 

 wing. This one was secured while I was beating the salt meadows for 

 English Snipe. My dog came to a beautiful stiff point; I walked up to 

 flush the bird, expecting to see a Snipe get up, but instead, the dog broke 

 point, and run his nose in the meadow grass and brought to me very 

 carefully the Rail." When I received it, it was so lively, and also so 

 pretty, that I disliked to kill it, so took it to the menagerie at Central Park, 

 New York City. Mr. Conklin, the Superintendent, placed it in a large 

 cage, surrounded with a fine wire netting, in company with some Q^uails 

 and Doves. Its restlessness was pitiful : it ran from side to side of the 

 coop and thrust its head in the loops of wire looking for a hiding place. 

 During its first night in confinement its neck was caught in one of the 

 wire loops and it became an involuntary' suicide. Its remains now rest 

 peacefully, with those of several other members of its family, in a tin 

 vault dedicated to the post-mortem uses of the avi-fauna of Long Island. 



12. Crex crex. Corn Crake. — Since my previous record of this bird 

 on Long Island,! I have had a mounted specimen presented to me by Mr. 

 A. A. Fraser, who "bagged the bird, November 2, iSSo. It was at the 

 foot of the uplands, where they join the meadows, in heavy cover, with 

 springs running from it." 



13. Phalaropus tricolor. Wilson's Phalarope. My friend, Mr. 

 Charles E. Perkins, again enriched my collection of Long Island birds by 

 sending to me, September 13, 18S7, a specimen of this Phalarope, which 



* See Bird Migration, By William Brewster. Mem. Nuttall Ornith. Club, No. i, 1886. 



t Birds of Long Island, p. 205. 



Dr. C. Hart Merriam in his Birds of Connecticut, pp. 118 and 119, gives a very 

 interesting letter from Dr. George Bird Grinnell regarding the capture of several speci- 

 mens of this species near Milford, Conn. He found "They were ridiculously tame 

 and would run along before the dog, creeping into the holes in the bogs and hiding 

 there while we tried in vain to. start them." 



+ Auk, Vol. HI, 1886, p. 435. 



