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THE VIRGINIAN RAIL. 



Ballus virginianus, Linn. 



PLATE CCV. Male, Female, and Young. 



This species, which, although smaller, bears a great resemblance to 

 the Great Red-breasted Rail or Fresh-water Marsh-Hen, is met with in 

 most parts of the United States at different seasons. Many spend the 

 winter within our southern limits, and I have found them at that time 

 in Lower Louisiana, the Floridas, Georgia, and the Carolinas. In the 

 Western country some have been known to remain until severe frost came 

 on, and there they usually stay to a much later period than in our Middle 

 Districts, from which they generally retire southward in the beginning of 

 October. During spring and summer, I observed some in different places 

 from the shores of the Wabash River in Ilhnois, to those of the St John's 

 in the British province of New Brunswick. In the latter district, they 

 were considered extremely rare birds by the inhabitants, some of whom 

 brought me a few as great curiosities. Farther north, I neither saw nor 

 heard of any ; but on the borders of Lakes Erie and Michigan, they 

 breed in considerable numbers, as well as near our maritime districts. 



In its habits the Rallus virginianus is intermediate between the R. 

 crepitans and R. carolinus: it obtains its food as well in salt-water marshes, 

 as in fresh meadows, watery savannahs, and the borders of ponds and 

 rivers. The latter situations, however, seem to suit it best during summer ; 

 but whenever both kinds of places are combined, or near each other, there 

 you are sure to meet with it. 



The time of breeding varies according to the latitude of the place. I 

 have found the female sitting on her eggs in the beginning of March, a 

 few miles from New Orleans ; in that of April in Kentucky, near Hen- 

 derson ; about a fortnight later near Vincennes, in Ilhnois ; and from the 

 10th of May to the middle of June, in the Middle and Eastern States. 

 The males usually arrive at the breeding-places a week or ten days be- 

 fore the females. They travel silently and by night, as I have ascer- 

 tained by observing them proceed singly and in a direct course, at a height 

 of only a few feet, over our broad rivers, or over level land, when their 

 speed is such as is never manifested by them under ordinary circum- 



