62 
General Notes . 
I noted a habit of strutting and similar maneuveringin thesebirds which 
I have never seen in Bartram’s Tattler. My attention was first attracted 
by the white lining of the wing as the bird lay on one side stretching the 
wing straight up in the air; on approaching nearer I saw several others 
near by acting in the same ludicrous manner. One would raise the feath- 
ers and strut up to another as though they were going to fight, and I think 
they did sometimes strike at each other as game cocks do. Another 
would run up to one of its companions and stand on tip-toe with both 
wings raised high in' the air as if challenging a contest; after standing 
still for an instant it would then drop its wings and go to feeding as 
quietly as before. I regretted that I had such a limited opportunity for 
making notes upon this truly interesting species. 
Dr. Merrill says that the same dates and localities apply to T. rufescens 
as to Actiturus bartramius. The latter, however, arrives in Cooke County 
as early as March 27, which is about four weeks earlier than I have no- 
ted the Buff-breasts. Both species are very tame and mingle freely 
together while feeding. 
Mr. A. Hall, of East Rockport, Ohio, informs me that he met with a 
small flock of these birds in riding over the prairies in Nebraska, May 18, 
1880, associated with A. bartramius. They were very tame, allowing so 
near an approach that they might have been easily killed with stones. 
The several specimens obtained were all females. He adds that he ob- 
served no strutting or fighting, such as I had described to him as seen by 
me in Texas. — G. H. Ragsdale, Gainesville , Texas. 
A Second Mass \chusetts Specimen of the Clapper Rail (Ral- 
lus longirostris). — Mr. Arthur Smith has shown me a fine specimen of 
the Clapper Rail which he shot late in October, 1879, at Gurnet Point, 
Plymouth, Massachusetts. It is a dark colored example in full fall 
plumage. It was killed on a salt marsh where another large Rail supposed 
to be of the same species was seen at the same time. After the expunging 
of the old-time records the Clapper Rail was first reinstated as a bird of 
Massachusetts by Mr. H. A. Purdie in this Bulletin for January, 1877. A 
year later Dr. Brewer published* a notice of what would at first reading seem 
to be a second specimen, for no reference is made to Mr. Purdie’s previous 
record and the date of capture is given as May, 1876; but upon looking 
up the bird in the “ New England Collection ” of the Boston Society I 
find it to be the same as that upon which Mr. Purdie based his data. 
Oddly enough Dr. Brewer apparently makes a similar blunder with 
Rallus elegans when he gives a specimen ( 1 . c.) as “ shot in Nahantin the 
spring of 1876,” with the remark that there is “no previous record for 
New England, except West Haven, Conn.” The latter statement is 
obviously incorrect, for the presence of the King Rail in Massachusetts 
had been made known by Mr. Purdief a year previously, and, if I am not 
*“ Notes on certain species of New England Birds with Additions to his Catalogue of 
the Birds of New England. By T. M. Brewer.” Proc. of the Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist., 
V-ol. XIX, Feb. 6, 1878. 
f Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, Vol. II, Jan., 1877, p. 22. 
