OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 83 



saw the specimen at the shop of Mr. J. S. Turner, a taxider 

 mist at Portsmouth, to whom it had been sent in the flesh in a 

 fresh condition. Mr. Dearborn has purchased the specimen 

 and it is now preserved at the State Agricultural College at 

 Durham. The presence of the bird in the state is of course 

 quite fortuitous at this time. 



63. Rallus virgiiiianus Linn. VIRGINIA RAIL. 



A local summer resident of the Transition regions, and per- 

 haps not so rare as the few records might seem to show. The 

 following are the only instances which have come to my notice : 

 Hampton, a bird seen and its nest, containing eight eggs, found 

 May 28, 1887, and another bird found dead under some tele- 

 graph wires by Mr. S. Albert Shaw ('87) ; Hampton Falls, Mr. 

 W. K. Cram gives it as a summer resident ; Hollis, Dr. W. H. 

 Fox writes that it is a rare summer resident ; Marlow, there is 

 a specimen in the Acworth Public Library, taken October i, 

 1 88 1 ; Lancaster, Mr. F. B. Spaulding writes me that several 

 years ago a boy found a nest containing about ten eggs on a low 

 meadow near the Connecticut, and that Capt. B. F. Goss iden- 

 tified the eggs as of this species. This is the only record I have 

 obtained for the northern part of the state. Webster, Mr. C. F. 

 Goodhue has found it rarely and does not know of its breeding. 



Dates: April to October i. 



64. Porzaua Carolina (Linn.). SORA. 



An uncommon and local summer resident in the Transition 

 area. I have found it in summer in a certain sedgy bog at 

 North Conway, and on July 13, 1897, at Intervale, I several 

 times started a single bird from the short grass of a flooded hay- 

 field on the Saco meadows during a sudden and extensive 

 freshet. Doubtless the birds breed in the vicinity. What may 

 have been an early migrant was seen at Intervale by a brook on 

 the meadows, August 26, 1898. Mr. W. K. Cram finds it in 

 summer at Hampton Falls. In migration Mr. William Brew- 

 ster has found it not uncommon in fall at Rye Beach. 



Dates : May to October. 



