278 FRANK FORESTERS FIELD SPORTS. 



October, and the Southern States early m November, though 

 numbers linger in the warm southern marshes the whole winter. 



" A very worthy gentleman — Mr. Harrison — who lives in 

 Kittiwan, near a creek of that name, on the borders of James 

 River, informed me, in burning his meadows early in March, 

 they generally raise and destroy several of these birds. 



" That the great body of these Rail winter in countries be- 

 yond the United States, is rendered highly probable, from their 

 being so frequently met with at sea, between our shores and 

 the West India Islands. 



" A Captain Douglas informed me, that on his voyage from 

 St. Domingo to Philadelphia, and more than a hundred miles 

 from the Capes of the Delaware, one night the man at the 

 helm was alarmed by a sudden crash on deck, that broke the 

 glass in the binnacle, and put out the light. On examining into 

 the cause, three Rail were found on deck, two of which were 

 killed on the spot, and the other died soon after. 



" The late Bishop Madison, President of William and Mary 

 College, Virginia, assured me that a Mr. Skipwith, for some 

 time our Consul in Europe, on his return to the United States, 

 when upwards of three hundred miles from the Capes of the 

 Chesapeake, several Rail, or Soras, I think five or six, came 

 on board, and were caught by the people. Mr. Skipwith being 

 well acquainted with the bird, assured him that they were the 

 very same with those usually killed on James Rivei\ 



" I have received like assurances fi'om several other gentle- 

 men, and captains of vessels, who have met with those birds be- 

 tween the main land and the islands, so as to leave no doubt on 

 my mind as to the fact. For why should it be considered in- 

 credible, that a bird which can both swim and dive well, and at 

 pleasure fly with great rapidity, as I have myself frequently wit- 

 nessed, should be incapable of migrating, like so many others, 

 over extensive tracts of land or sea 1 Inhabiting as they do the 

 remote regions of Hudson's Bay, where it is impossible they 

 could subsist during the rigor of the winter, they must either 

 emigrate from there, or perish ; and as the same places in Penn- 



