180 RAMBLES ABOUT HOME. 



large, which a little patient observation might readily 

 have checked. On the other hand, when we affect to 

 become observers, how often do we rashly jump at con- 

 clusions based upon deceptive appearances! Certainly, 

 in my own brief experience, I can only testify to the 

 apparent reality of a bird, less common than swallows, 

 but superabundant in New Jersey, hibernating in mud. 

 I refer to the little rail, or sora. Early in August, with 

 all the regularity of the passing seasons, these birds sud- 

 denly appear in vast numbers, in the meadows skirting 

 the Delaware River. Now, ornithologists know well 

 enough that the rail is strictly migratory ; but I have 

 yet to see the first gunner, or other person familiar with 

 our meadows, who ever saw a rail-bird earlier than in 

 July, and seldom then. Nevertheless they are here weeks 

 prior to that month, but so closely do they keep them- 

 selves to the muddy, weed-grown marshes, that their 

 detection is well-nigh impracticable. Of course, there 

 must be taken into consideration the fact that, prior to 

 the middle of August, they are not sought for ; but then, 

 and until after frost, thousands are killed by the gunners. 

 Now, the gunners, the farmers, and those whose business 

 or inclination takes them to these marshes, know the rail- 

 birds as a suddenly acquired feature of the locality, and, 

 if they see them, see them running lightly over the 

 mud that skirts the ditches in our marshy meadows. 

 They are as much a feature of such localities as frogs ; 

 but, unlike them, they are extremely sensitive to frost. 

 It is not strange, perhaps, that the impression of hiberna- 

 tion should have been entertained with reference to this 

 bird ; but it must be borne in mind that mere sudden 

 disappearance should not suggest hibernation in the mind 

 of any thoughtful person. Birds that migrate by day, 

 rather than in the night, disappear as suddenly as do the 



