UPLAND SHOOTFNG. 277 



almost constantly jettiiiij;- up tlie tail, yet though their ilight 

 amoui; the iveds .seem ticblc and fluttering, every sportsman 

 will) is atijuaintcd with them here, must have seen them occa- 

 siinally i isin.; to a ((MLsidcrable height, stretching out their legs 

 behind tlicni, and tlyinL,^ rapidly across the river, where it is 

 more th;iii a mile iu width. Such is the mode of Rail shooting 

 in till" neighborhood of Philadelphia. 



•• In Mrginia, particularly along the shores of James River, 

 within the tide water, where the Rail, or Sora, are in prodigious 

 numbers, they are also shot on the wing, but more usually taken 

 at night in the following manner : — 



" A kind of iron grate is fixed on the top of a stout pole, which 

 is })laced like a mast in a light canoe, and filled with fire. The 

 darker the night, the more successful is the sport. The person 

 who manages the canoe, is provided with a light paddle, ten or 

 twelve feet in length ; and about an hour before high water, pro- 

 ceeds through among the reeds, which lie broken and floating on 

 the surface. The whole spac6, for a considerable way round 

 the canoe, is completely enlightened, — the birds start with as- 

 tonishment, and, as they appear, are knocked over the head with 

 a paddle, and thrown into the canoe. In this manner, from 

 twenty to eighty dozen have been killed by three negroes in the 

 short space of three hours. 



" At the same season, or a little earlier, they are very nume- 

 rous in the lagoons near Detroit, on our northern frontier, 

 where another species of reed, of which they are equally fond, 

 grows in shallows in great abundance. Gentlemen who have 

 shot them there, and on whose judgment I can rely, assure me 

 that they differ in nothing from those they have usually killed 

 on the shores of the Delaware and vSchuylkill ; they are equally 

 fat and exquisite eating. 



" On the seacoast of New- Jersey, where these are not to be 

 found, this bird is altogether unknown, though along the 

 marshes of Maurice River, and other tributary streams of the 

 Delaware, and where the reeds abound, the Rail are sure to be 

 found also. Most of them leave Pennsylvania before the end of 



