AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



2or 



such places as the birds frequent, with great eagerness and 

 enthusiasm. 



The natural history of the Rail, or as it is called in Vir- 

 ginia, the Sora, and in South Carolina the Coot, is, to the 

 most of our sportsmen, involved in profound and inexpli- 

 cable mystery. It comes, they know not whence ; and 

 goes, they know not whither. No one can detect their first 

 moment of arrival; yet all at once the reedy shores, and 

 grassy marshes, of our large rivers swarm with them, thou- 

 sands being sometimes found within the space of a few 

 acres. These, when they do venture on wing, seem to fly 

 so feebly, and in such short fluttering flights among the 

 reeds, as to render it highly improbable, to most people, 

 that they could possibly make their way over an extensive 

 tract of country. Yet, on the first smart frost that occurs, 

 the whole suddenly disappear, as if they had never been. 



To account for these extraordinary phenomena, it has 

 been supposed, by some, that they bury themselves in the 

 mud; but as this is every year dug into by ditchers and 

 people employed in repairing the banks, without any of 

 those sleepers being found, where but a few weeks before 

 these birds were innumerable, this theory has been gene- 

 rally abandoned. And here their researches into this mys- 

 terious matter generally end in the common exclamation of 

 "What can become of them!" Some profound inquirers, 

 however, not discouraged with these difficulties, have pro- 

 secuted their researches with more success; and one of 

 those, living a few years ago near the mouth of James 

 river, in Virginia, where the Rail or Sora are extremely 

 numerous, has (as I was informed on the spot) lately disco- 

 vered, that they change into fy-ogs! having himself found 

 in his meadows an animal of an extraordinary kind, that 

 appeared to be neither a Sora nor a frog; but, as he ex- 

 pressed it, " something between the two." He carried it 

 to his negroes, and afterwards took it home, where it lived 

 three days, and in his own, and Jiis negroes' opinion, it 

 looked like nothing in this world but a real Sora, chana:ino- 

 into a frog! What farther confirms this grand discovery, is 

 the well known circumstance of the frogs ceasing to hollow 

 as soon as the Sora comes in the Fall. 



This sagacious discoverer, however, like many others re- 

 nowned in history, has found but a few supporters; and, 

 except his own negroes, has not, as far as I can learn, made 

 a single convert to his opinion. Matters being so circum- 

 stanced, and some explanation necessary, I shall endeavour 

 to throw a little more light on the subject, by a simple de- 

 tail of facts, leaving the reader to form his own theory as he 

 pleases. 



The Rail or Sora belongs to a genus of birds of which 

 about thirty different species are enumerated by naturalists; 

 and these are distributed over almost every region of the 



habitable parts of the earih. The general character of these 

 is every where the same. They run swiftly, fly slowly, 

 and usually with the legs hanging down; become extremely 

 fat; are fond of concealment, and, wherever it is practica- 

 ble, prefer running to flying. Most of them are migratorv, 

 and abound during the summer in certain countries, the in- 

 habitants of which have very rarely an opportunity of see- 

 ing them. Of this last the Land Rail of Britain is a striking 

 example. This bird, which, during the summer months, 

 may be heard in almost every grass and clover field in the 

 kingdom, uttering its common note, crek, crek, from sunset 

 to a late hour in the night, is yet unknown, by sight, to 

 more than nine-tenths of the inhabitants. "Its well known 

 cry," says Bewick, " is first heard as soon as the grass 

 becomes long enough to shelter it, and continues till the 

 grass is cut; but the bird is seldom seen, for it constantly 

 skulks among the thickest part of the herbage, and runs so 

 nimbly through it, winding and doubling in every direc- 

 tion, that it is difficult to come near it; when hard pushed 

 by the dog, it sometimes stops short, and squats down, by 

 which means its too eager pursuer overshoots the spot, and 

 loses the trace. It seldom sjjrings but when driven to extre- 

 mity, and generally flies with its legs hanging down, but 

 never to a great distance; as soon as it alights it runs ofi^ 

 and before the fowler has reached the spot, the bird is at a 

 considerable distance." The TVater Crake, or Spotted 

 Rail of the same country, which in its plumage approaches 

 nearer to our Rail, is another notable example of the same 

 general habit of the genus. "Its common abode," says 

 the same writer, " is in low swampy grounds, in which are 

 pools or streamlets overgrown with willows, reeds and 

 rushes, where it lurks and hides itself with great circum- 

 spection; it is wild, solitary, and shy, and will swim, dive 

 or skulk under any cover, and sometimes suffer itself to be 

 knocked on the head, rather than rise before the sportsman 

 and his dog." The Water Rail of the same countrj' is 

 equally noted for the like habits. In short, the whole 

 genus possess this strong family character in a very remark- 

 able degree. 



These three species are well known to migrate into Bri- 

 tain early in spring, and to leave it for the more southern 

 parts of Europe in autumn. Yet they are rarely or never 

 seen in their passage to or from the countries where they 

 are regularly found at difierent seasons of the year; and 

 this for the very same reasons, that they are so rarely seen 

 even in the places where they inhabit. 



It is not, therefore, at all surprising, that the regular mi- 

 grations of the American Rail or Sora should, in like man- 

 ner, have escaped notice in a country like this, whose popu- 

 lation bears so small a proportion to its extent; and where 

 the study of natural history is so little attended to. But 



