232 FEATHERED GAME 



until proven. Let us not trust entirely to the 

 rails' crops for our lead while we may buy else- 

 where. The average rail is very well content 

 with the ' ' thatch ' ' seed, which is plainly a very 

 nutritious food, for the rails on such diet are 

 always fat and in good order. 



Rail-like, the Sora flushes only as a last re- 

 sort, preferring, if in danger, to run and skulk 

 through the grass, and will worm and twist its 

 way among the closest-growing stalks with con- 

 siderable speed — a proceeding for which the 

 shape of its body peculiarly fits it. On the wing 

 they are slow and clumsy, flying heavily with 

 their long legs hanging, and unless obliged to 

 continue their course they will generally drop 

 at once into the grass and run a little further 

 before hiding, hugging the cover even closer 

 at the next attempt to put them up. Yet these 

 same birds somehow travel from the mainland 

 to Cuba in their migratory flights, which take 

 place at night and mostly on the full of the 

 moon. 



In New England the rail is almost wholly a 

 migrant. It is rarely that any of them brave 

 the rigors of our winters, and the few that at- 

 tempt it do so only in the southern parts. In 



