8 Joint Bulletin 3 



Riccm arvensis Aust, which was No. 139 for New Hampshire, just for 

 good measure! 



Later, while motoring through Granville Notch, Mr. C. A. 

 Weatherby collected Radula tenax Lindb., a species whose appearance 

 the writer had been expecting for quite a while. There are still over 

 30 species on the New England list which it would not be unreasonable 

 to expect in Vermont. 



COLONY OF VIRGINIA AND SORA RAILS 



Duane E. Kent 



I have often read of colonies of Virginia and sora rails, but it was 

 never my good fortune to visit one, until May 31, 1916. 



My work often takes me to Bridport, Vt., and during the spring of 

 1916. I overheard Mr. R. B. Myrick telling about a cat-tail bog in a 

 meadow nearby, which he said, was inhabited by some strange birds 

 that made runways in the cat-tails and rank water sedges. I took it 

 for granted at once that the birds were rails, and through the kind- 

 ness of Mr. Myrick, I made plans to visit this bog the coming nesting 

 season and May 31, 1916, was the eventful day. 



This bog is about one and one-half miles southwest from Bridport 

 village, on Mr. J. Swinton's farm. As the soil is very fertile, a 

 luxuriant growth of cat-tails, water-grasses, and sedges form a jungle, 

 some of the cat-tails reaching above my head. The bog is in a little 

 meadow, commencing near a barn, and ranging from about four to 40 

 or 50 rods wide. It is nearly a half mile in length, emptying into 

 Dead creek, north of the barn. 



In May there was only a short growth of new shoots showing 

 above the dead grasses, which in some places were matted lightly to- 

 gether, making a mass two feet in depth. Of course most of the fruit- 

 ing cat-tails were still erect, and this, with a considerable depth of 

 mud, made it a very difficult place to locate nests. 



When Mr. Myrick and I arrived at the bog, bobolinks, meadow- 

 larks and vesper, song and Savannah sparrows were singing in the 

 meadow close by, and numerous red-winged blackbirds, and long- 

 billed marsh-wrens were very active in the cat-tails, but not a sound 

 came from the rails. After entering the cat-tails, my delight was un- 

 bounded upon hearing the Virginia rail's note, and from this on, we 

 could hear them continually in different parts of the bog. 



