28 GREAT RED-BREASTED RAIL. 



in the interior of South Carolina, Georgia, the Floridas, and Louisiana, 

 from which a few migrate, and probably breed as far to the eastward as the 

 wet meadows of the Delaware and Schuylkil rivers, in the vicinity of which 

 I killed one female in New Jersey, a few miles from Camden, in July 1832, 

 in company with my friends Edward Harris and Mr Ogden, of that 

 city. On inquiring of numerous hunters, I was told by several of them 

 that they now and then obtained a few of these birds, which they consi- 

 dered as very rare, and knew only by the name of " King Rails/' On 

 recently examining the museums of our eastern cities my friend John 

 Bachman saw only one specimen; and Mr William Cooper of New York 

 assured him that he had never seen any other individuals than those sent 

 to him from Charleston. Mr Bachman was present at the killing of a 

 specimen near Philadelphia, which was considered as a very old individual 

 of the Rallus crepitans. In Louisiana, the Creoles know this bird by the 

 name of Grand Rale de Prairie. 



As the Fresh-water Marsh-Hen is abundant in South Carolina, I 

 shall attempt to describe its habits as observed in that State, both by my- 

 self and by my friend John Bachman, of whose notes, delivered to me for 

 the purpose, T shall make free use. " Although not nearly so numerous 

 as the other species, they are not rare in that country, in certain favour- 

 able situations. Wherever there are extensive marshes by the sides of 

 sluggish streams, where the bellowings of the alligator are heard at inter- 

 vals, and the pipings of myriads of frogs fill the air, there is found the 

 Fresh-water Marsh-hen, and there it may be seen gliding swiftly among 

 the tangled rank grasses and aquatic weeds, or standing on the broad 

 leaves of the yellow Cyamus and fragrant Water-lily, or forcing its way 

 through the dense foliage of Pontederiac and Sagittariae. There, during 

 the sickly season, it remains secure from the search of man, and there, on 

 some hillock or little island of the mar.sh, it builds its nest. In such 

 places I have found so many as twenty pairs breeding within a space ha- 

 ving a diameter of thirty yards. The nests were placed on the grcmnd, 

 and raised to the height of six or eight inches by means of withered weeds 

 and grasses. The number of eggs was nine or ten. About the middle 

 of March I found a few nests containing two or three eggs each ; but, in 

 my opinion, the greater number of these birds commence breeding about 

 the middle of April. They appear to repair their nests from time to time, 

 and to return to them several years in succession.'" 



The young, which are at first black, leave the nest as soon as they 



