Vocalizations of the Black Rail (Laterallus jamaicensis) and the Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis)

Abstract

ONE night in June, 25 years ago, a group of us were listening to the medley of sounds coming from a marsh about 28 km (about 17 miles) south of Ithaca, New York. Suddenly, from not more than 15 meters away, out in the marsh, came a sound that none of us had ever heard before. We paraphrased it, Tic-tic-tic-McGreer, recorded it on 35 mm sound film, which we were using at the time, and then began to speculate concerning its identity. Dr. Arthur A. Allen then led some of us into the marsh with flashlights. We caught the briefest glimpse of a bird, which might have been a rail, but we are still interested in identifying the bird. Some months after we recorded it, we played the sound to the assembled members of the A.O.U. No one offered any suggestions as to its identity. Several years earlier Dr. Allen had found a nest in the marsh at the head of Cayuga Lake that almost certainly was that of a Yellow Rail. Also there had been occasional reports of Yellow Rails in the Cayuga Lake basin during the fall and spring migrations. These observations gave us some reason to believe that the vocalization might be that of the Yellow Rail. About 1952 Mr. Aretas Saunders listened to the recording at Cornell and later wrote that he was quite satisfied that it was a Yellow Rail. In 1958 Dr. Harold Axtell, an able observer of bird song, was consulted concerning the identification and stated that he had heard this song in the field and was quite certain that it was a Yellow Rail. On one occasion, since making the original recording, Dr. Allen and I again heard what we believe to be the same call in a marsh near Paul Smiths, Franklin County, New York. We did not see this bird, nor did we record the call. In 1959 we published this call in the album, Field Guide to Bird Songs, designed to accompany Roger Peterson's Field Guide to the Birds, with reasonable confidence that we were correct that it was that of a Yellow Rail. On 13 February 1960 Mr. Chandler Robbins of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wrote to Roger Peterson in part as follows: