GREAT RED-BREASTED RAIL. '29 



burst the shell, and follow their mother, who leads them along the bor- 

 ders of the streams and pools, where they find abundance of food, con- 

 sisting of grass-seeds, insects, tadpoles, leeches, and small crayfish. At 

 this early period, when running among the grass, which they do with 

 great activity, they may easily be mistaken for meadow-mice. My friend 

 Bachman, who had several times attempted to raise these birds, with the 

 view of domesticating them, did not succeed, principally, he thinks, on 

 account of the difficulty of procuring enough of their accustomed food. 

 They all died in a few days, although the greatest attention was paid to 

 them. 



When grown they feed on a variety of substances, and it has appeared 

 to me that they eat a much greater proportion of seeds and other vege- 

 table matters than the Salt-water Marsh-Hens. It is true, however, 

 that, in the gizzard of the latter we find portions of the Spartina glabra ; 

 but when that kind of food is not to be procured, which is the case du- 

 ring three- fourths of the year, they feed principally on " Fiddlers,"' small 

 fish, and moUusca. In the gizzard of the present species, besides the food 

 already mentioned, I have always found a much greater quantity of the 

 seeds of such grasses as grow in the places frequented by them. On one 

 occasion I found the gizzard crammed with seeds of the cane {Arundo 

 tecta) ; and that of another contained a large quantity of the seed of the 

 common oat, which had evidently been picked up on a newly sown field 

 adjoining to the marsh. In autumn I have killed this species in corn- 

 fields, in the company of John Bachman, Paul H. Leks, Esq. and 

 others. These birds are rarely shot by common gunners, on account of 

 the difficulty of raising them, and because they generally confine them- 

 selves to places so swampy and covered with briars, smilaxes, and rough 

 weeds, that they are scarcely accessible. But although they are thus 

 safe from man, they are not without numerous enemies. 



My friend Bachman once killed a large Moccasin snake, on opening 

 which he found an old bird of this species, that had evidently been swal- 

 lowed but a short time before. Its feathers are frequently found lying on 

 the banks of rice-fields, ponds, and lagoons, in places where the tracks of 

 the minx plainly disclose the plunderer. The Barred Owl and the Great 

 Horned Owl also occasionally succeed in capturing them in the dusk. 

 " On one occasion," says my friend Bachman, in a note addressed to me, 

 " while placed on a stand for deer, I saw a wild cat creeping through a 

 marsh that was near to me, evidently following by stealthy steps some- 



