BIRDS HUNTED FOR FOOD OR SPORT. 



209 



is known about their habits and food. They walk or run 

 rapidly over half-submerged vegetation, swim as lightly as 

 a Duck in passing across from one cover to another, and slip 

 easily through their covered ways, even in the night, for they 

 are abroad more or less at night as well as by day. The hesi- 

 tating, heavy flight of this Rail would seem to make a long 

 migration difficult, if not impossible; nevertheless, long flights 

 are taken yearly to the south. Rails in migration appear 

 to fly very low, and many are killed by flying against tele- 

 graph wires. They cross large rivers and ba\'s in their flights, 

 which are made under cover of night. 



This Rail feeds on beetles and other insects, and its food 

 also includes caterpillars, earthworms, slugs, snails and such 

 small forms of animal life as it finds on fresh marshes, for 

 it rarely appears on salt marshes. As autumn approaches, 

 seeds of various kinds are added to the bill of fare. 



Mr. Calm of the University of Wisconsin fed a Virginia 

 Rail for nine days. The food appears in the following table: — 



This table indicates the remarkable quantity of animal 

 food consumed. One of the snakes was 7| inches in length, 

 the other 12 inches. Two hours after the Rail began to swal- 

 low this snake it was all stowed within. The bird never 

 appeared fully satisfied with the quantity of the food given 

 it except when it had killed and swallowed a snake. ^ 



' Cahn, Alvin R.: Notes on a Captive Virginia Rail, Auk, 1015, pp. 91-95. 



