UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 347 



tides. On this last situation, where the dry flats are thickly inter- 

 spersed with drifted shells, they lay three eggs in a slight hollow; 

 the young are hatched about the twenty-fifth of May. This bird is 

 the Sea-pie of navigators. 



('/>i]>/n r JtniL This is a very numerous and well known species, 

 inhabiting our whole Atlantic coast from New England to Florida. It 

 is designated by different names, such as the Mud-hen, Meadow- 

 clapper, IMg ilail,&c. Though occasionally found along the swampy 

 shores and tide waters of our large rivers, yet its principal residence 

 is in the salt marshes. It is a bird of passage, arriving on the coast 

 of New Jersev about the twentieth of April, and retiring again late 

 in September. The shores of New Jersey, within the beach, seem 

 to be the favourite breeding places of these birds, as they are there 

 acknowledged to be more than double the number of all other marsh 

 fowl. These shores consist of an immense extent of flat marsh, cover- 

 ed with a coarse reedy grass, and occasionally overflowed by the sea, 

 by which it is cut up into innumerable islands. The Mud-hen soon 

 announces its arrival in the marshes, by its loud, harsh and incessant 

 cackling, which very much resembles that of a Guinea-hen. This 

 noise is more general during the night : and is said to be always 

 greatest before a storm. About the twentieth of May they generally 

 commence laying and building at the same time : the first egg being 

 usually dropt in a slight cavity, lined with a little dry grass, which 

 as the number of the eggs increases to their usual complement ten, 

 is gradually added to, until the nest rises to the height of twelve 

 inches or more. Over this the long salt grass is artfully arched and 

 knit at the top, to conceal it from the view above. The eggs are 

 excellent eating, surpassing those of the domestic hen. The height 

 of laying is about the first of June, when the people of the neigh- 

 bourhood go off to the marshes an egging, as it is called. So abun- 

 dant are the nests of this species, and so dexterous are some persons 

 at finding them, that one hundred dozen of eggs have been collected 

 by one man in a clay. The food of the Clapper Kail consists of small 

 shell-fish, particularly those of the snail form, so abundant in the 

 marshes ; they also eat small crabs. Their flesh is dry, tastes sedgy, 

 and will bear no comparison with that of the common Rail. 



Common Rail or Sora. The natural history of the Rail, or as it is 

 called in Virginia the Sora, and in South Carolina the Coot, is to the 

 most of our sportsmen involved in profound and inexplicable mystery. 

 It comes, they know not whence ; and goes, they know not whither. 

 No one can detect their first moment of arrival ; yet all at once the 

 reedy shores and grassy marshes of our large rivers swarm with them, 

 thousands being sometimes found within the space of a few acres. 

 These, when they do venture on wing, seem to fly so feebly, and in 

 such short fluttering flights among the reeds, as to render it highly 

 improbable to most people that they could possibly make their way 

 over an extensive tract of country. Yet, on the first smart frost that 

 occurs, the great body suddenly disappear. 



The Rail or Sora belongs to a genus of birds of which about thirty 

 different species are enumerated by naturalists ; and these are distri- 

 buted over almost every region of the habitable parts of the earth. 

 Their general character is everywhere the same. They run swiftly, 

 fly slowly, and usually with the legs hanging down ; become extreme- 

 ly fat; are fond of concealment; and, wherever it is practicable, 



