l/X\ 
& 
While walking from Cambridge to Waverly on the afternoon of 
the 2d I heard the Kicker of July 13 close by the Fitchburg rail- 
road and found the answers of it, two Rails, Virginia, I think 
I saw the birds quite near, but owing to the dense growth and my 
slight acquaintance with the birds, I am not positive of the spec- 
ies. I could not see the bill well. The birds called one anoth- 
er when I seprated them kik'-kik 1 -, kik'-kik', k i k 'Vk 1 k ’ ; some- 
times kik'- kik'. Besides this call they gave out a shrill kg ah 
Or k_ah . and occasionally a sound almost a whistle. On the 3d I 
found them in the same place and in another. The kik'-kik seems to 
me to be an alarm call note and, supposing the bird to be the 
Virginia Rail , I think it may be equivalent to the eut'-tuk of 
the Perhaps this will explain why we have heard the cut- 
tuk so seldom, it being an alarm signal, only given when the bird 
is disturbed. Walter paxon, letter of August G, 1889. 
Winter Birds of Cape Cod, Mass. 
Balph Hoffmann. 
Rallus 
3 1 ’ i 8 94 - 
T 
virginianus. Virginia Rail. 
Mr. Bangs reported this bird as 
Auk, XII. April, 
One seen in Barnstable, Dec. 
fairly numerous in December, 
1396. Pc' 88 ' 
