216 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



formation goes, Massachusetts appears to be near the northern 

 hmit of its breeding range on the Atlantic coast, but it may go 

 farther north. Eaton gives only five records of specimens 

 actually taken in New York, and five more have been reported 

 as seen at close range; but such records are received with 

 caution, as the black, downy young of larger Rails are mis- 

 taken for Black Rails. Wayne appears to be the first observer 

 who has actually seen the female Black Rail on her nest in the 

 United States, and recorded it. The nest was in an oat field, 

 and the standing grain where the nest was had been cut. The 

 bird is so secretive that, as related by Wayne, two men and a 

 dog searched four hours for the male in the oat field before it 

 could be secured, although it was calling incessantly. This 

 bird may not be as rare as it is rated. 



The Black Rail runs swiftly, like a mouse, through the 

 herbage, and seldom flies, although in migration it has reached 

 the Bermuda Islands. Gosse quotes a Mr. Robinson who says 

 that in Jamaica it is so foolish as to hide its head and cock up 

 its tail, thinking itself safe, when it is easily taken alive. The 

 Massachusetts records given by Howe and Allen follow: A 

 specimen was picked up dead in August, 1869, on Clark's 

 Island in Plymouth harbor.^ Another was found on the 

 streets of Boston, by D. T. Curtis, September 20, 1874.^ This 

 record may not be authentic. Mr. Curtis evidently did not 

 know the Rail, and he states that the bird was black and had 

 long yellow legs. It might have been the young of some other 

 Rail or Gallinule, as, so far as can be determined from the 

 article in Forest and Stream, no ornithologist saw it. It was 

 kept for a while and afterwards liberated. A pair was found 

 with young at Chatham in July, 1884, and a nest with eggs in 

 May, 1885.' Howe and Allen also quote Mr. Robert O. Morris 

 to the effect that the species bred in Hazardville, according to 

 J. H. Batty.* The latter record, however, should be credited 

 to Connecticut, as Hazardville is near Enfield, Conn. A male 

 was taken by Mr. Stanley Cobb at Milton, May 16, 1904. 



1 Purdie, H. A.: Bull. Nuttall Orn. Club, 1877, p. 22. 



2 Curtis, D. T.: Forest and Stream, Apr. 5, 1877, Vol. VIII, p. 129. 

 •■ Allen, J. A.: Revised List of the Birds of Mass., 1886, p. 236. 



* Morris, Robert O.: Birds of Springfield and Vicinity, 1901, p. 13. 



