Gal 1 lxiaKQ del icata . 
Ball's Hill, Concord, Mass. 
1897. During the first ten days of April the Great Meadows were, 
April. as usual, flooded but, after the 10th, continued warm, dry 
weather caused the water to fall steadily until by the 21st 
the river was in most places well within its banks. Ho doubt 
there had been Snipe on the brook meadows of Concord long be- 
fore this but the first bird that I noted was one that drummed 
a few times near Ball's Hill on the evening of the 22nd. Dur- 
ing the remainder of the month I heard them every evening as 
well as in the early morning whenever I happened to awake at 
the right time. In the evening they began drumming about 15 
or 20 minutes after sunset, keeping it up until the light had 
faded out in the west (I did not once hear one after it had 
become fairly dark); in the morning I heard them from 4.15 to 
4.30 o'clock. They were most numerous on the evenings of the 
27th and 28th when the meadows seemed to be fairly alive with 
them, three or four being usually engaged in drumming ’at one 
time while others wefe cackling or "scaiping". As a rule the 
cackle was seldom heard until nearly the close of the drumming 
period when, for ten of fifteen minutes, it would come from 
every part of the meadows. In quality it was very like the 
cut -cut ta note of Rallus vir«inianus and anyone hearing it for 
the first time would be nearly sure to conclude that it was 
the voice of some species of Rail. It varies somewhat in tone 
