RAIL AND REED BIRDS. 1 7/ 



south, especially in the Carolinas, they are found and shot in num- 

 bers. Audubon speaks of fifty to a hundred birds being killed 

 during a tide. 



Rallus clegans.—KVi&. King-Rail. Fresh-water Marsh-hen, 

 In markings, this bird resembles longirostris, but the colors 

 are much brighter. It is also a larger bird. It is an inhabitant 

 of the fresh water marshes of the United States, although they 

 are occasionally, during migrations, found in salt or brackish- 

 water marsh-lands ; a better table bird than the last, but rarely 

 seen or shot by gunners, on account of their reluctance to fly ; they 

 are sometimes flushed by boats, when after Sora, the birds having 

 ventured too far from their impenetrable cat-tails, while feeding 

 upon the wild-oats, the special food of the genus. 



Rallus Virginianus.—\Av^r\. Virginia Rail. Red Rail. Corn-crake. 

 Coloration as in clegans of which it is a perfect miniature ; 

 length eight and one-half to ten and one-half inches ; a common 

 migrating species of the United States, sometimes found beyond 

 the line. This bird is well known to Sora hunters, being shot in 

 the same situation and localities ; it is not, however, so peculiarly a 

 fresh water bird, being in early summer, and sometimes late fall, 

 found in the great salt meadows ; they are, however, more fond of 

 thick cover than the Carolina Rail, and seldom venture far from 

 such places. When the moon is at its full in September or Octo- 

 ber, and the perigee, or in " shover " parlance " Pagy," tides take 

 place, the afternoon high-water sometimes almost outtops the 

 cat-tails, and it is at these times that most of the Virginia Rail are 

 secured, for the skiff of the gunner may then be pushed through 

 these ordinarily msurmountable barriers, and the inmates, two or 

 three Virginia Rail, perhaps a Least Bittern or rarer still a Florida 

 Gallinule may be thus started. Still for every fifty Sora, not more 

 than one Virginia Rail is boated. 



Porzana Carolina.— ^Cassin.. Carolina Rail. Sora. Ortolad. 



Olive brown above, varied with black and numerous sharp 

 white streaks and specks, flanks barred with black and whitish ; 

 adult, face and central line of throat black, rest of the throat, line 

 8* 



