1893
June 14
(No 2)
Say brook Ferry, Conn.
  I also found a Sea-side Finch's nest with four
young well feathered & near taking wing. This nest was
built among & supported by cat tail flags of last year's
growth & broken down by the winter's snows. The bottom
of the nest was fully 15 inches above the ground.
[margin]Sea-side Sparrow's
nest[/margin]
  In a bed of tall rank cat tails we heard a Rail
calling cutta or rather cuttuck or perhaps ticket. Sometimes
he trebled the syllables (cuttacuck). He called freely
while we stood within a few yards talking. We drove
him out into a narrow belt of flags which we beat
to the extreme end without flushing him. When we
were very near him the cutta had a curious vibratory
undertone which Faxon compared to the sound of
hammers struck together under the ground. We searched
the flags carefully but could find no signs of a nest.
[margin]Virginia Rail[/margin]
  While we were standing on the edge of the flags listening
to the Cutta another Rail voice quite new to us both
came from near the same spot where the cutta had
called an instant before. It was a deep, rough grunt
repeated deliberately four or five times. Faxon had heard it
[delete]again[/delete] in the same place before I joined him. (In the
afternoon, in these same flags, he heard still another 
Rail-like voice which resembled the pig note of the
Va Rail but differed in certain respects. In the evening
at about sunset we visited these flags again. The Cutta
was calling then & presently we heard the other [delete]new?[/delete] note once
& distinctly but 100 yards or more away. It resembled the
pig-note of R. virginianus very closely in form but the notes 
were deeper, hoarser & more slowly given &[and] the voice was nearly
as strong as that of a Bittern. We suspect the bird to be a King Rail).
[margin]Rallus - ?[/margin]