82 THE NATURALIST IN BERMUDA. 
1849, my own chasse amounted to fifteen and a half 
couple. 
Many of these birds appear to winter in Jamaica, being 
found in that island from October to April. Gosse alludes 
to an instance of twenty-two couple being shot there in one 
day ; and Dr. Von Tschudi, in speaking of the zoology of 
the neighbourhood of Valparaiso says, “the snipes found in 
the little plain between the bay and the lighthouse, are in 
colour precisely like those of Europe, from which, however, 
they differ by having two more feathers in their tails.” A 
more perfect description of Scolopax Wilson could not be 
desired. 
CAROLINA CRAKE GALLINULE (Ortygometra Carolinus). 
This bird is one of the marvels of American ornithology. 
Wilson states that its history is involved in profound mys- 
tery, inasmuch that no one knows from whence it comes, or 
where it goes. He then quotes two instances of the bird 
being met with at sea, at distances of one hundred and 
three hundred miles from the American coast, from which 
he concludes that the great body of those birds must winter 
in countries beyond the United States, and that Heaven has 
eifted them, “in common with many others,” with instinctive 
judgment and strength of flight sufficient to seek a more 
genial abode during the winter season. 
Taking this luminous statement for our guide, let us pro- 
ceed to inquire into the movements of the Carolina Crake, 
after its departure from the shores of North America. 
Heavy and sluggish as this bird may appear when dis- 
turbed in its marshy retreat, there can no doubt that it 
possesses great powers of wing, and the mere fact of its 
uever failing to visit the Bermudas on its great southern 
