iSR.f.l Ccncfiil Notes. 393 



Seven voiiiisj; birds in August iiad tlu' ist ;iii(i jd primaries more or 

 less wliito, and tlic last lonr pure wiiitii. Thi' other primaries were 

 plumbeous, mottled on web-maryins with ochraeeous. 



The tails of the half-grown birds were banded and mottled with brown 

 like the back; showing a bleaching to white along the centres of the outer 

 featiiers. One bird— an adult male, taken the last of June— has a black 

 centre spot at the end of an outer tail feather. 



During winter the sexes keep in separate flocks. At least so I judge 

 from noting that where two or more birds were taken from a flock, all 

 were of the same sex. — Frank M. Drew, Bunker Hill. Til. 



Eskimo Curlew at San Diego, Cal. — One individual of this species {Nu- 

 »ie?iius borealis) was attracted by my decoys and shot, September, 1883. 

 The same day I shot a Hudsonian Curlew from out of a mixed ilock of 

 shore birds. Both were new to me at the time, although since the Hud- 

 sonian has been, seen quite frequently', and was in April, this year, abun- 

 dant in good-sized flocks, feeding on a grub-pest that pervaded the mesa 

 slopes adjoining the Bay. But this single record of the Eskimo Curlew 

 is, as far as I can learn, the first for this southern coast. The bird was in 

 good plumage, but apparently ill at ease and flying alone — perhaps a 

 .straggler which came with the early flocks of the Long-billed Curlew and 

 Willet. — Godfrey Holterhoff, National City. Cal. 



Nesting of the Little Black Rail in Connecticut. — On the evening of the 

 I3t]i of July. 1S76, one of my neighbors called in to ask me if I cared for a 

 .set of RaiTs eggs. I did not care very much, as Virginia Rails are very 

 common here, but on inquiry as to what variety he had found, he replied 

 that he could not tell. He had been mowing at the Cove meadows and his 

 scythe had decapitated a Rail sitting on her nest of nine eggs, and he had 

 placed the remains of the bird and eggs — some of them broken — aside for 

 me. I was greatly surprised when I beheld what he had brought me, so 

 totally unlike were they to anything I had ever seen, and it was only after 

 considerable research that I discovered that I possessed something very 

 rare— eggs of the Little Black Rail {Porzatia famaicensis). Some of these 

 specimens I sent to my friend, Mr. H. A. Purdie of Boston, for confirmation 

 of their identity, and an account of the find was inserted in the 'Bulletin 

 of Januarv, 1S77. The other specimens I retained in my collection, Avith 

 no anticipation that opportunity would ever recur for duplicating them. 

 But on the 6th of June, 18S4, I made a trip to -Great Island'— a tract of 

 salt meadow near the mouth of the Connecticut River, on its eastern 

 shore — in search of nests of Ainmodromi which abound in that locality. 

 During a very successful hunt for them I observed a tuft of green grass 

 cai-efully woven and interlaced together, too artificially to be the work of 

 nature. 'Merely another Finch's nest,' I mused, as I carefully parted the 

 green bower overhanging it. But wasn't there an extra and audible beat 

 to mv pulse when before m}- astonished gaze lay three beautiful Little 

 Black Rail's eggs.' Recovering from my surprise I carefully replaced the 



