238 FEATHERED GAME 



at least half that number, while of the Virginia 

 rails scarcely twenty have been killed in the 

 same time. 



The Yellow Rail seems to be quite hardy, 

 staying here after the other species have de- 

 serted us and the ice has made in the pond- 

 holes of the marsh. The writer has shot them 

 when there had been severe cold for Novem- 

 ber and after a snowfall of three or four inches. 



He is a beautiful little bird, — his body color 

 a golden yellow, the feathers of his back and 

 wing coverts jet black with yellow edges, and 

 here and there speckled with tiny white spots. 

 His breast is a deep golden yellow, growing 

 paler below. Flanks and inside of wings 

 barred with black and white. Crissum golden 

 yellow. Length about six inches, extent ten or 

 thereabout. This is the smallest of the rails 

 ordinarily found in New England, though that 

 extremely rare straggler here, the black rail, is 

 even smaller. 



The Yellow Rail is a more inveterate skulker 

 and, if possible, harder to flush than any other 

 of the family. Out of the first six specimens 

 which the writer obtained five were captured 

 by the dog and the sixth only escaped the same 



