CONTENTS. XXm 



CHAPTER XIII. 



PAGE 



The Rail, or Sora— Description and Nomenclature— History— Their mys- 

 terious Movements— Their sluggish Flight— Transformed into Frogs- 

 Several Species known in England— Their regular Migrations— Their 

 Young found on the Meadows in the vicinity of Philadelphia — Corn Crake 

 of England— Rails able to fly long distances— Some caught at Sea— Singu- 

 lar Characteristics of Rails— Epileptic Fits— Their powers of Ventrilo- 

 quism — Ventriloquism of the Arctic Fox — Their Food — The Zizania Aqua- 

 tica — Their Flesh — Their Note— Their skulking Habits — An easy mark — 

 Their Flight — When wounded— At the North — Very sensitive to Cold — 

 Shooting Rails; how accomplished — Paraphernalia necessary for Rail 

 Shooting — The Pusher— Tricks of Rail Shooters— High Tides— The causes 

 of high Tides— Rails better at the full of the Moon— Easily killed— Num- 

 bers killed— A list of the best Shooting— Mr. Eyre's Exploit— Mr. Hub- 

 bell's Exploit- How killed in Virginia— Netting Rails— Fish prey upon 

 them— Places to Shoot Rails— Expense attending Rail Shooting— Memo- 

 randa ............. •"0"3 



CHAPTER XIY. 



Great Red-breasted Rail — Well known on the Delaware — Frequents Fresh- 

 water Marshes — Their Food — More common in the South — Description — 

 Their Flesh — Iving Rail — Skulking Habits — One shot on an Upland Marsh 

 — Known as the Fresh-water Marsh Hen 220 



CHAPTER XY. 



Clapper Rail, or Mud Hen — Nomenclature — How known to Coast Shooters — 

 Location — The flesh insipid — Not known in Europe — Resembles the Moor 

 Hen — Habits — Abundant in Delaware and New Jersey — Migratory Bird — 

 Their Note — Time of Nidification — Number of Eggs — Robbery of their 

 Nests — The marshes overflown — Great and inhuman destruction of Mud 

 Hens at such times — Difficult to Flush — How to kill them — A good Re- 

 triever useful — Their Flight labored — Numbers about Cape May and 

 Henlopen — Description, &c. . 



900 



CHAPTER XVI. 



Esquimaux Curlew, or Short-billed Curlew — Known as the Jack Curlew — 

 Description — Migratory — Breeding and Rearing of their Young — Numbers 

 on the Labrador Coast — on the Coast of New Jersey — Their Food — Their 

 Flesh — Their Flight — Ways of Shooting them — How to approach — When 

 wounded — Proper Gun — Along the Inlets — Not the same as the Whimbrel 

 of England 226 



