118 C. IT. Merriam — Birds of Connecticut. 



directs the boat forward and picks it uj) wliile the gunner is loading. 



In this manner the boat moves steadily through and over 



the reeds, the birds flushing and falling, the gunner loading and 



firing, while the boatman is pushing and picking up In 



these excursions it is not uncommon for an active and expert marks- 

 man to kill ten or twelve dozen in a tide !"* Mr. Grinnell informs 

 me that the same method of hunting is practiced on the marshes 

 bordering the Housatonic River, Conn. 



224. Porzana Noveboracensis (Gmelin) Cassin. Yellow Rail. 



Not common. Taken at Stratford, Conn., by Linsley. Though 

 one of the rarer birds, it breeds about Middletown, Conn., as I am 

 informed by Mr. Coe, Avho took it there in 1874 and 1875. Mr. Thos. 

 Osborne has a specimen killed near New Haven. Mr. Grinnell favors 

 me with the following note concerning its occurrence on the marshes 

 near Milford, Conn. : 



Di:ar Merriam— The specimens of Porzana Noveboracensis about 

 which you enquire were taken for the most part during the month of 

 October, 1S70, although I procured one individual as late as Xov. 

 loth. The securing of the first two or three was quite accidental. 



I was working a young setter on Snipe [Gallinago Wilson i) on a 

 piece of Avet meadow near Milford, Conn., 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 perfoi-mances I saw" the puppy 

 grasp at something in the bogs before him, and immediately 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. JVove- 

 boracensis, a species which I had never before seen alive. During 

 the day several more individuals were secured. The next oppor- 

 tunity that I had of looking for these birds was, I think, Oct. 14th. 

 That day my brother and I secured eight in an hour or two. They 

 were ridiculously tame and woidd run along before the dog, creeping 

 into the holes in the bogs and hiding tlieve while we tried in vain to 

 start then), I killed one witli my <log whip, caught one alive in my 

 hand, and the dog brought me another, uninjured, which he had 



* Wilson's American Ornithology, vol. iii, p. 115, 1831. 



