(2a) 
YELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. 
RatLus NovVEBORACENSIS, Bonar. 
PLATE CCCXXIX. Mate. 
Tue Prince of Musicnano, who purchased one of these birds in 
the New York market, in February 1826, gave a figure of it, and con- 
sidered it as an arctic species. This opinion, however, is incorrect, for 
the Yellow-breasted Rail is a constant resident in the Peninsula of the 
Floridas, as well as in the lower parts of Louisiana, where I have found 
it at all seasons. That a few straggling individuals should proceed 
northwards, advancing even to pretty high latitudes, is not much to be 
wondered at, as we have a similar case in the Common Gallinule. But 
at the season mentioned the individual referred to must have been for- 
ced thither by a storm, as no Rails of any kind are found in that part 
of the country in winter. 
In the neighbourhood of New Orleans, this species is found in all 
the deserted savannahs, covered with thick long grass, and pools of 
shallow water. There you hear its sharp and curious notes many times 
in the course of the day, just as you hear those of Rallus crepitans near 
the sea-shore, more especially after the report of a gun, when they are 
louder and more quickly repeated. ‘These sounds come on the ear so 
as to induce you to believe that the bird is near; but whether this be 
the case or not is not easily determined, for when you move towards a 
spot in which you suppose it to be, the sounds recede at your approach, 
and you may think yourself fortunate if, after half an hour of search, 
you discover one on wing. Indeed, if we have a bird in America 
approaching in its habits the Corn Crake of Europe, it is the Yellow- 
breasted Rail; and were I disposed to systematize, I should consider 
it as a connecting link between land and water birds, as in some of its 
habits it also resembles the European Quail, a bird as fond at times of 
damp meadows bordering rivers as this species is wont to be, when it 
seeks for a place of safety in which to form its nest and rear its young. 
In the Floridas, this bird is more abundant than even in Louisiana ; 
and I met with it frequently in the course of my wanderings there, not 
only on the mainland, but also on several of the keys, where they begin 
breeding in March. On Sandy Island, near Cape Sable, I found several 
