THECAROLINA RAIL. 19S 



»f Rails and their kindred allies; with faculties for acting 

 in the day, timidity alone seems to have rendered thera 

 almost nocturnal in their actions; their sole address and 

 cunning seems entirely employed in finding out means of 

 concealment ; this is particularly the case when wounded ; 

 they then swim out and dive with so much caution as sel- 

 dom to be seen again above water ; they even cling with 

 their feet to the reeds beneath that element, where they 

 would sooner endure suffocation than expose themselves 

 with any chance of being seen ; they often also skulk, on 

 ordinary occasions, under the floating reeds, with nothing 

 more than the bill above water. 



At other times, when wounded, they will dive, and rise 

 under the gunwale of the sportsman's boat, and secreting 

 themselves there, have the cunning to go round as the ves- 

 sel moves, until, given up as lost, they find an opportunity 

 of completing their escape. 



According to the observations of Mr. Ord, the females, 

 more particularly, are sometimes so affected by fear, or 

 gome other passion, as to fall into sudden fits, and appear 

 stretched out as lifeless, recovering, after a while, the use 

 of their faculties, and falling again into syncope, on merely 

 presenting the finger in a threatening attitude. 



At such times, and during their obstinate divings, they 

 often fall victims^ no doubt, to their enemies in the watery 

 element, as they are sometimes seized by eels and other 

 Toracious fi&h, who lie in wait for them; so that the vert 



