EAIL SHOOTING. 137 



familiar and somewhat endearing epithets of 

 ''timid little water-fowl," "shy birds," as we 

 shall see when we get further on, when rail are 

 found baffling the bewildered pusher, by hiding 

 under the submerged reeds, to escape being 

 riddled by a charge of No. 8, or diving like 

 the devil or a bay black-head, to avoid being 

 knocked on the head. 



It would be well, also, to remember that two 

 different branches of the family have been 

 raised to royal dignity ; the rattus elegans 

 being styled the king-rail in America, while the 

 rallus crex, by the unanimous voice of the 

 people of Old England, savants excepted, was 

 long ago crowned king of the tetrao coturnix, 

 the wandering and warlike quail. 



Rail often leave the marshes and come upon 

 the dry meadows, seldom remaining there longer 

 than an hour or two, and never wandering far 

 from their favorite haunts. While crossing a 

 hard, dry meadow, from one marsh to another, 

 on the island of Spesutia, in October last, we 

 came upon numbers of rail which refused to lie 

 for the dogs, but rose from among the thin grass 

 and flew swiftly off to the rushes, about two 

 hundred yards distant. When shot in the 

 above situations, their crops have invariably 



