Rail and Reed Bird 167 



one moment believe that the amount of profit or 

 pleasure which a limited number of persons derives 

 from the annual slaughter of thousands of birds is 

 anything like a fair compensation for the resultant 

 loss of the bobolink's spring music. Furthermore, 

 the good accomplished by these birds in destroying 

 insects during the nesting period will more than bal- 

 ance the debit item of oats as charged in the agricultu- 

 rist's ledger. The inexorable demands of fashion have 

 already played havoc among our most beautiful and 

 useful song-birds, and we might well suffer the bobo- 

 link to safely pass through the reed-bird stage of his 

 existence. If this were done, our fields might again 

 ring with the melody of the olden days, and the 

 Eastern states be much more pleasant fields for 

 man's toil. So desirable a condition is not to be 

 expected so long as guns roar the doom of the 

 " reedies " nor while the riven lutes find ready sale. 

 The man who can listen to the bobolink and still 

 enjoy a course of " reedies," is about on a par with 

 the consumer of English skylarks. And as for the 

 pot-hunter who butchers the beauties for the pennies 

 their wretched little bodies bring! would he not 

 glory over a pot-shot at an angel, the sale of the 

 game, and the shrewd dicker with " Mine Uncle " 

 for the golden harp ? 



The rail, or sora, Porzana Carolina, is an entirely 

 different type. It knows not music, its quaint, 

 metallic chatter somewhat resembling the low, 

 hurried cry of a startled guinea-fowl. It is a 

 wader, a frequenter of the wet marsh and meadow 

 and the border of the stream. Here it finds shelter, 

 food, and a nesting-place. The rail's northward and 



