RAILS. 219 



way through dense masses of reeds and high grass 

 with so much facility as to escape even after 

 being desperately wounded. The flesh of all these 

 birds is delicate ; and from living chiefly upon 

 aquatic seeds and vegetable aliment, they may be 

 considered as aquatic Gallinacea" * To these 

 points of resemblance may be added, that many 

 of the species of this Family construct nests of 

 accumulated materials, and lay a great number of 



As in the Family just dismissed, the great 

 length of the toes enables these birds to walk on 

 aquatic herbage without sinking, or on the soft 

 mud and ooze of lakes and morasses. Many 

 swim and dive with a facility not surpassed by 

 that of any of the Ducks, though the feet are not 

 webbed. Some of the most aquatic, however, 

 have a narrow margin of membrane running down 

 each side of the toes, and in one genus this is 

 dilated at intervals, so as to constitute each toe 

 a broad scolloped oar. Flight is rarely resorted 

 to by them as a means of progression or of 

 escaping danger ; the posterior limbs are the prin- 

 cipal depositories of muscular energy ; the sternum 

 is remarkably narrow, the wings short, concave, 

 and moved by feeble muscles ; hence the flight, 

 which can be sustained only for a short distance, 

 is slow, heavy, and fluttering; and, during the 

 unwonted exertion, the long legs and feet hang 

 helplessly and awkwardly downward. But on the 

 ground, the close array of tall reeds, or the high 

 grass of the meadow, presents no obstacle to their 

 speed, these they thread with surprising ease ; 

 and the bird, which the observer has just seen 



* Classification of Birds. 



