UPLAND SHOOTING. 271 



the reedy shores and grassy marshes of our large rivers swai'm 

 with them, tliousands being sometimes found within the space of 

 a few acri's. These, when tliey do venture on wing, seem to fly 

 80 feel)ly, and in such short fluttering flights among the reeds, as 

 to render it highly improbable to most people that they could 

 possibly make their way over an extensive tract of country. Yet 

 on the first smart frost that occurs, the whole suddenly disap- 

 pear, as they had never been. 



" To account for these extraordinary phenomena, it has been 

 supposed by some that they bury themselves in the mud, but as 

 this is every year dug up into ditches, by people repairing the 

 banks, without any of these sleepers being found, where but a 

 few weeks before these birds were innumerable, this theory has 

 been abandoned. And here their researches into this mysteri- 

 ous matter, generally end in the common exclamation of, "What 

 can become of them ? Some profound inquirers, however, not 

 discouraged with these difficulties, have prosecuted their re- 

 searches with more success, and one of these being a few years 

 ago near the mouth of James River, in Virginia, where the 

 Rail, or Sora, are extremely numerous, has, as I was informed 

 on the spot, lately discovered that they change into Frogs, 

 having himself found in his meadows an animal of an extraordi- 

 nary kind, that appeared to be neither a Sora nor a Frog, 

 but, as he expressed it, something between the two. He car- 

 ried it to his negroes, and afterwards took it home, Avhere it 

 lived three days, and in his own, and in his negroes' opinion, it 

 looked like nothing in this world but a real Sora changed into a 

 Frog ! \Vliat farther confirms this grand discovery, is the well- 

 known circumstance of the Frogs ceasing to halloo as soon as 

 the Sora comes in the fall. 



" This sagacious discovery, however, like many others re- 

 nowned in history, has found but few supporters, and except his 

 own negroes, has not, as far as I can learn, made a single con- 

 vert to his opinion. 



" Matters being so circumstanced, and some explanation ne- 

 cessary, I shall endeavor to throw a little more lio-ht on the 



