THE RAIL. 267 



men and captains that they have often met with these birds between 

 the mainland and the islands.* These facts, certainly, are suffi- 

 cient to convince us that rails are capable of very long flights, and 

 would also lead us to believe that many of them even pass their 

 winters in as remote districts as the West India Islands. 



SINGULAR CHARACTERISTICS OF THE RAIL. 



The mysterious coming and going of the soras is not the only 

 singular characteristic attributed to the species, as it has been sur- 

 mised years ago, by a gentleman of respectability and worth of 

 this city, that rails are subject to bursts of vehement passion, occa- 

 sioning fits analogous to epilepsy, and relates several instances in 

 which this singular effect was produced. We never witnessed any 

 thing of this kind ; but some of our sporting friends may have done 

 so in their shooting excursions, and we should be glad to hear from 

 them on the subject. It has also been observed, by "Brewer," 

 that the various species of rails possess a certain power of ven- 

 triloquism, which is more particularly developed in the corn-crake 

 of England ; and that when crying they often remain stationary, 

 and throw their voices in opposite directions, at one time as if 

 within a few yards of the spot where the observer is standing, and 

 in a second or two appearing in an entirely different position. 



We should, perhaps, never have noticed this remarkable fact in 

 the rail species, if our attention had not been called to it by the 

 observations of "Brewer." We are induced to place much confi- 

 dence in his views upon this subject, from our intimate knowledge 

 of the habits of the rails of our own country, which we believe also 

 to be somewhat endowed with this singular power ; and the mere 

 mention of it in this article may possibly throw some additional 

 light on the subject. It is not at all impossible that nature may 



* May 10, 1851. We were invited by our friend George H. Bryan, Esq., to go 

 on board of the packet-ship Michael Angelo, just arrived from Liverpool, to see a 

 rail caught at sea some days previous. The captain assured us that the nearest 

 land at the time the rail was captured was Cape Sable, distant about three hun- 

 dred miles. 



