122 



THE OOLOGIST 



Nesting of the Yellow Rail in North 

 Dakota. 



(Coturnicops noveboracensis) 



In the southwestern part of Benson 

 County., between the town of Esmond 

 and the old Glacial River locally 

 known as the big coulee, are to be 

 found a number of wet, springy or 

 marshy tracts which are connected 

 with the coulee by ravines or gullies. 

 These ravines contain much of this 

 same wet springy ground. 



It was on one of these upland 

 marshes, on June 14th, 1899, that I 

 found my first nest of Coturnicops 

 Noveboracensis. 



The country at that time was new 

 to me and I was tramping about just 

 looking for anything there was to be 

 found, when I heard the sound of 

 eggs crushing underfoot. I lost no 

 time in pulling away the dead grass 

 which concealed the nest and found 

 one perfect egg and four smashed 

 ones. They were perfectly fresh. 



The nest was a thick, compact struc- 

 ture of fine grasses, shallowly hollow- 

 ed, and placed on the wet ground of 

 the previous year's growth. Five days 

 later, in one of the ravines, I stepped 

 on nest number two. It contained 

 nine fresh eggs and all were broken. 

 Like number one, it was placed on 

 the wet ground with prone dead grass 

 overlying and was similar in struc- 

 ture. In neither case did I catch a 

 glimpse of the bird, and my attention 

 was not once attracted to their call 

 notes during 1899. 



The identity of my finds remained 

 a mystery to me until later in the sea- 

 son, when I had become fairly well ac- 

 quainted with the nestings of the Vir- 

 ginias and Soras, I began to suspect 

 that the nests belonged to one of the 

 smaller Flails. And upon sending my 

 single egg to P. B. Peabody, I was as- 

 sured by him that it was that of the 

 Yellow Rail. 



Late in May, 1900, I became ac- 

 quainted with the call notes of the 



birds and heard them in the big coulee 

 as well as in the ravines and upland 

 marshes. They were found to be great 

 skulkers and almost impossible to 

 flush. However, after finding that 

 there were plenty of the birds on hand, 

 my hopes of securing a set of eggs be- 

 came very bright. But alas! I did 

 not know that the season of 1899 was 

 very late, therefore I could not know 

 that the middle of June would be too 

 late to begin the search which I was 

 planning, the season of 1900 being 

 normal. 



The birds seemed fairly common in 

 one certain ravine where the dead 

 grass of two or three previous seasons 

 lay in a thick mat among the growing 

 grass. Selecting this ravine on the 

 morning of June 13th, as probably the 

 most favored nesting ground, I got to 

 work turning over that dead grass and 

 found nest number three. Before noon 

 I had uncovered this nest containing 

 the broken shells of two eggs. It was 

 a thin saucer-shaped affair of large 

 grass blades, rather loosely built and 

 placed on the wet ground, a small 

 knoll surrounded by shallow water. 

 Late in the afternoon having found 

 nothing further, I decided to visit the 

 ravine in which I had found nest num- 

 ber two in 1899. Nest number four 

 was soon discovered. Here again I 

 most unfortunately stepped on a set 

 of nine eggs, smashing them all. In- 

 cubation was more than one-half. The 

 nest did not differ in structure from 

 number two. I went about thirty yards 

 away from the nest; then upon re- 

 turning, I caught sight of a little wing 

 going under the grass, making a quick 

 jump I captured alive with my hand 

 a female Yellow Rail. 



June 16th found me at work again 

 in the ravine in which I had found 

 nest number three, and the result of 

 the day's work was the discovery of 

 two more nests. Nest number five was 

 a thin structure of coarse grass blades, 

 placed on the wet ground, contained 



