106 NOTES ON THE 
the most abundant species of the Rails which spend their sum- 
mers in nearly all parts of Minnesota. In speaking of his 
observations of this species in the Red river valley Mr. Wash- 
burn says:—‘‘ They are extremely abundant everywhere in the 
marshes and sloughs. During the summer, one only catches 
occasional glimpses of them, although their crek, crok, crek, is 
heard everywhere in the reeds. In September, however, I 
find the young and old birds more easily observed, there being 
more of them, and consequently they are less shy. They are 
then seen running over the reedy surface of the ponds, and 
slipping in and out among the rushes and reeds that fringe the 
shores.” The same gentleman found them still common in the 
meadows of Otter Tail county between October 9th and Novem- 
ber 10th. Mr. Westhoven told him he had often captured 
them when mowing in the meadow, by placing his two hands 
quickly over the spot in the grass where he had seen them go 
down, the grass holding them effectually without injuring 
them. 
Few but those who are specially interested are apt to notice 
the little busy Carolina Rails, so well concealed do they 
keep themselves in the presence of man, but after one has the 
secret of their habits he may easily find and make his notes 
in their closest proximity. 
In the early history of Minneapolis a fifteen minutes’ walk 
in almost any direction, just after sunset, would place the Rail. 
hunter in its haunts, and again the same in the gray of the 
morning. Amongst the later haunts in which I have found 
it abundant for its kind is one along the northwestern shores 
of Lake Calhoun (Mendoza?) where a narrow tamarack swamp 
touches it for a distance of about 100 yards, and another about 
a mile west of the Falls of Minnehaha. 
Mr. Efell, who had been spending some time in the vicinity 
of Moorhead late in the summer, became very much interested 
in their local habits from finding their nests to be quite com- 
mon in the cultivated fields, especially the corn fields; the 
nest was degenerated to a simple depression in the soft earth, 
with a slight lining of weeds, of which there were generally 
an abundance. This seemed quite remarkable to one who 
cannot see through evolution, but it shows that when we have 
written up the natural history of the world, we shall need to 
do it all over again every season or two. 
