2 90 The Water-fowl Family 



piece of wet meadow near Milford, Connecticut, 

 and several times during the early part of the day 

 was annoyed by the pertinacious way in which 

 the dog would trail up some bird which neither 

 he nor I could start. At length, during one of 

 these performances, I saw the puppy grasp at 

 something in the bog before him, and immedi- 

 ately a small rail rose and fluttered a few yards. 

 Noticing its small size, and the fact that.it had 

 some white on its wings, and seeing from its 

 flight that it was a rail, I shot the bird before it 

 had gone far, and when it was brought by the 

 dog I was delighted to see that it was P. novebo- 

 racensis, a species I had never before seen alive. 

 During the day several more individuals were 

 secured. The next opportunity I had of looking 

 for these birds was, I think, October 14. That 

 day my brother and I secured eight in an hour 

 or two. They were ridiculously tame, and would 

 run along before the dog, creeping into the holes 

 in the bog and hiding there while we tried in 

 vain to start them. I killed one with my dog- 

 whip, caught one alive in my hand, and the dog 

 brought me another, uninjured, which he had 

 caught in his mouth. From what I saw of their 

 habits, I am convinced that the only successful 

 way of collecting these birds is to look for them 

 with a dog. Without one they could never be 

 forced from the ground." 



