Aug. 1887.] 



Al^D OOLOGIST. 



131 



fed liiin, then let hiin get hungry and did the 

 same. Ou the third trial he manifested his 

 knowledge of the making of sound and sign, 

 both together and separately. In a month's 

 time I could trust him out doors, and I began 

 to practise him at small birds tossed out of my 

 hand, giving vent to a peculiar screech at the 

 same time. (While writing these lines I dis- 

 cover that I am now entirely unable to make 

 the sound; "old age creeps on apace"). See- 

 ing the biids come out of a bag he made no 

 objei;tion to going into it himself, and soon 

 took the habit of passing most of his leisure 

 time there. This habit did not conduce to the 

 beauty or cleanliness of his plumage, but he 

 was a knowing little fellow, and full as much 

 company for me as a horse or a dog is now. 



Well, he met his fate at last and died like a 

 true hearted soldier. One afternoon when he 

 was very hungry I loosed him at a Snowy 

 Heron that rose quite near as we came sudden- 

 ly round a point of bushes. Gallantly he an- 

 swered to the halloo. The heron was quickly 

 overtaken, and as he wheeled and twisted about 

 over the green marsh to elude his fierce assail- 

 ant, white feathers began to drift upon the 

 breeze. He rose and Grip rose too. At the 

 height of a hundred yards or more he made one 

 of those startling dives from aloft, which only 

 the Ix'autiful Snowy Heron can make to perfec- 

 tion. But in the midst of his headlong descent 

 the reckless little hawk struck him and both 

 fell behind some trees beyond my sight. When 

 I found them l»oth were dead. Grip held one 

 wing of the heron and his talons were planted 

 in the side. But he himself was impaled upon 

 the heron's bill. 



Well, I cried, yes I did — I own it and so 

 would have you. I took them home and 

 mounted them in the position they died in. 

 Spent a week on the job, and it made a fine 

 •'piece," but I could'nt enjoy it myself so i 

 gave it away before it was fairlj' dry. 



Nesting of the Virginia Rail in New 

 Hampshire. 



BY S. ALBERT SHAW. 



During the latter part of the summer of 188G 

 a boy brought me an addled egg which he 

 found in an old nest in a swan)py pasture and 

 which 1 could not satisfactorily identify, so I 

 decided to make a search for the nest next 

 season, hoping the birds would return there 

 to breed again. 



It was on the 13th of May last that 1 visited 



the above-mentioned pasture, which is boggy 

 and very wet, the open part being covered with 

 hassocks and a dense growth of rushes and 

 coarse grass, the other portion with a thick 

 growth of alders, white birches and scattering 

 young pines, and through which fiows a slug- 

 gish brook. The ground is traversed by cow- 

 paths running in every direction, the interven- 

 ing spaces being covered with a rank growth 

 of skunk cabbage. 



It was while thi-eading my way careful Ij' 

 through the above thicket that I had a fine op- 

 portunity of witnessing the movements of a 

 bird I had never seen alive before, a Virginia 

 Rail. 



I remained perfectly quiet and he was soon 

 running about within a few feet of me, and the 

 thought came to me that from the examination 

 of a dead specimen one would never suspect it 

 capable of such nimble and graceful move- 

 ments as 1 had the pleasure of witnessing. If 

 I stirred he would pause and turn his bright 

 little eyes towards me for an instant, and then, 

 as if reassured, would continue his Search for 

 food as unconcernedly as before. Saw him 

 catch several flies in a dexterous manner and 

 also probe the mud with his long red bill in a 

 rapid manner. As I moved away he ran along 

 only a few steps in advance for quite a distance 

 when I suddenly lost sight of him, but shall 

 always remember the meeting with pleasure. 



Thinking from its actions a nest might be not 

 far away, I spent quite a while looking for it 

 but in vain. 



On May 21st I made another eflbrt to find 

 the nest and was successful after a long search. 

 It was in the midst of a large patch of cat tails, 

 eight inches from the ground, and was com- 

 posed of dead grass, with a few leaves of the 

 cat tails on top, which was perfectly flat, the 

 whole being supported by several last year's 

 stalks that surrounded the nest, almost com- 

 pletely hiding it from view. It contained one 

 egg, with no room to spare. 



I flushed the bird from the nest and as she 

 flew rather slowly and awkwardlj', with legs 

 hanging down at full length, I had a good 

 chance to identify her befoie she dropped into 

 a thicket a few rods away. 



Visited it again on the 28th, and found eight 

 eo^gs, and that the suiface of the nest had been 

 doubled by the addition of more leaves of the 

 cat tails and also slightly hollowed. 



The eggs an; of a dirty wliite, covered with 

 lilac spots which are larger and more numerous 

 on the larger end. The measurements average 

 1.20X.80. 



