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This bird I believe was looking for its mate, and every evening at 
dusk would begin calling and continue until midnight or later. We 
would only occasionally hear it in the day time. There was also 
another bird further away which we would sometimes hear, apparently 
answering the one above mentioned. The note of the Virginia Rail 
I v/ill attempt to describe as follows: It began v/ith the sounds, 
tuk -- tuk, uttered slowly; a hardly noticeable pause, then the 
sound tuk -- a — tuk — tuk uttered rapidly, and then a rather a- 
brupt change to the final sound of, tee -- oo,the former uttered in 
a shrill tone with a rising inflection and a trifle prolonged, 
falling off gradually to the double o, which is soft and gradu- 
ally dies away. The whole note being described by the following: 
tuk — tuk tuk-a - luk - tuk — tee - oo. The notes designated 
by tuk - tuk some what resemble the call notes of a three or four 
months old chicken, and in fact some of the members of my family 
did once insyst that I was mistaken, and that the call was that of 
a chicken. 
hr. Ductcher and his son Basil were with me on August 3d and 
saw the bird I have reference to as it ran ahead of the dog which 
hunted it for several hours and could not make it fly. After Aug- 
ust 3d we did not hear it so rep ularly. I went away on August 
loth, but my brother told me that it was heard for only two nights 
after that. 
better to Bradford Torrey from w. F. Hendrickson, Long Island 
City, Hew ork, September I7th, 1889. 
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