2 
on the accompanying list 2 could easily send some bird—friend in New York 
City to the Library of the Am. Mus. of Nat. History to make the corres- 
ponding citations.Or,in case of extremely brief but greatly valuable de- 
tails it mignt be quite as time-saving for you and far more efficacious for 
me if you would kindly jot down the briefest possible notessabbreviated to 
*the limit." For any such courtesies,Mr Brewster,I should be very grateful 
indeed. (In such case,please give title and Volume). 
I am most deeply inte rested in the breeding habits of the two rarer Americ-— 
an species of rail,-the Black and the Yellow Raiis.< am hardly inclined to 
believe that you would acquiesce with Dr. Dwight in intimating;that unlessI 
nad taken specimens of both rails,in North Dakota,it would be idle to 
claim that both are found there.And when I tell you that,if you care to 
inspect them,I can send you eggs of both species,taken a few hundred yards 
apart in the same coulee,I am sure that you will be quite ready to hear 
anything further that I may have to say on the subject. 
LI flushed examples of both species repeatedly in Benson County,North Dako- 
ta.Of yellow rail nests I found about eight,-— and tne young friend who 
found the colony.Of black rail nests I found but one;tho why but one I an 
sure I cannot understand;since, judging by the number of individuals flushed, 
the bird were more numerous than their relatives. 
Some time when I print I shall take great pleasure in sending you prints 
from two very good negatives of two several nests of the yellow rail found 
in the colony in question.(Tne black rail nest was not a nest at all;but 
just a place beneath a wisp of coarse dead grass.The eggs were found by 
the searching touch of my finger;there being nothing audible or visible to 
vive me the faintest inkling that beneath that bit of prone dead grass 
there lay the very first intimation of any sort on record that the black 
rail is a regular Summer habitant of parts of North Dakotaé 
T have touched upon this rail matter because of your own most-interesting 

