224 LEWIS'S AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



the water, to enable them to breathe, in which position they will 

 continue until an opportunity offers for escaping from their 

 pursuer. 



In the month of July, the soras are found farther north ; and we 

 hear of them being shot upon the marshy shallows in the neighbor- 

 hood of Detroit, where another species of reed, to which they are 

 also partial, is seen to grow; and no doubt there are many places 

 along our northern frontier that are visited by these birds in their 

 annual migrations. Rails are very sensitive to cold, and seldom 

 remain with us longer than the month of October ; and it is quite 

 useless to go in quest of them after a smart frost or two, even if it 

 should occur quite early in the season, as they will generally be 

 found to have abandoned their haunts as suddenly as they came to 

 them. The season of 1846 was a remarkably favorable one for 

 the stay of the soras in our rivers ; and we understand that until 

 November 25th of that year they lingered in considerable numbers 

 among the reeds, luxuriating upon their tender seeds, and awaiting 

 the first brumal spell to speed them on their tedious journey to the 

 South. 



SHOOTING RAILS. 



The sport attending the destruction of rails is exciting and 

 exhilarating in the extreme, but perhaps more fatiguing and less 

 beneficial to health than any other kind of shooting. It is carried 

 on in this wise : 



Being furnished with a small, flat-bottomed canoe, and a good, 

 broad-shouldered boatman, yclept "pusher," from the peculiar duty 

 that he performs in propelling the bateau through the reeds by 

 means of a long pole, the sportsman stations himself on the rail- 

 ground and anxiously awaits the coming of the tide. The water 



