UPLAND SHOOTING. 273 



swim, dive and skulk under any cover, and sometimes sutler 

 itself to be knocked on the head, rather than rise before the 

 sportsman and his doi^. The Water Rail of the same country 

 is noted for the like habits. In short, the whole genus possess 

 this strange family character in a very remarkable degree. 



" These three species are well known to migrate into Britain 

 early in tlir spring, and to leave it for the more southern parts 

 of Europe in autumn. Yet they are rarely or never seen in 

 their passage to or from the countries, where they are regularly 

 found at different seasons of the year, and this for the very 

 same reasons, that they are so rarely seen even in the places 

 they inliabit. It is not, therefore, at all surprising, that the re- 

 gular niii;rarions of the American Rail, or Sora, should in like 

 mann'.'r liave escaped notice in a country like this, whose popu- 

 lation bears so small a proportion to its extent, and where the 

 study of natural history is so little attended to. But that these 

 migrations do actually take place, from north to south, and vice 

 ■versa, may be fairly inferred from the common practice of thou- 

 sands of other species of birds, less solicitous of concealment, 

 and also from the following facts : — 



" On the 22d day of February, I killed two of tiiese birds in 

 the neighborhood of Savannah, in Georgia, where they have 

 never been observed during the summer. On the second day 

 of the May following, I shot another in a watery thicket, below 

 Philadelphia, between the rivers Schuylkill and Delaware, in 

 what is usually called the Neck. This last was a male in full 

 plumage. We are also informed that they arrive at Hudson's 

 Bay early in .Tune, and again leave that settlement for the 

 South early in autumn. 



" That many of them also remain here to breed, is proved by 

 the testimony of persons of credit and intelligence, with whom 

 I have conversed, both here and on James River, in Virginia, 

 who have seen their nests, eggs, and young. In the extensive 

 meadows that border the Schuylkill and Delaware, it was for- 

 merly common, before the country was so thickly settled, to 

 find young Rail in the first mowing time, among the grass 

 18 



