AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 



209 



by the sportsman, and to note the exact spot where it falls, 

 until he has picked it up; for this once lost sight of, owing 

 to the sameness in the appearance of the reeds, is seldom 

 found again. In this manner the boat moves steadily 

 through, and over the reeds, the birds flushing and falling, 

 the gunner loading and firing, while the boatman is push- 

 ing and picking up. The sport continues till an hour or 

 two after high-water, when the shallowness of the water, 

 and the strength and weight of the floating reeds, as also 

 the backwardness of the game to spring as the tide decreases, 

 obliges them to return. Several boats are sometimes within 

 a short distance of each other, and a perpetual cracking of 

 musquetry prevails along the whole reedy shores of the 

 river. In these excursions it is not uncommon for an active 

 and expert marksman to kill ten or twelve dozens in a tide. 

 They are usually shot singly, though I have known five 

 killed at one discharge of a double-barrelled piece. These 

 instances, however, are rare. 



The flight of these birds among the reeds is usually low; 

 and, shelter being abundant, is rarely extended to more 

 than fifty or one hundred yards. When winged, and unin- 

 jured in their legs, they swim and dive with great rapidity, 

 and are seldom seen to rise again. I have several times, on 

 such occasions, discovered them clinging with their feet to 

 the reeds under the water, and at other times skulking under 

 the floating reeds, with their bill just above the surface. 

 Sometimes, when wounded, they dive, and rising under 

 the gunwale of the boat, secrete themselves there, moving 

 round as the boat moves, until they have an opportunity of 

 escaping unnoticed. They are feeble and delicate in every 

 thing but the legs, which seem to possess great vigour and 

 energy; and their bodies being so remarkably thin, or com- 

 pressed, as to be less than an inch and a quarter through 

 transversely, they are enabled to pass between the reeds 

 like rats. When seen, they are almost constantly jetting 

 up the tail. Yet, though their flight among the reeds seems 

 feeble and fluttering, every sportsman, who is acquainted 

 with them here, must have seen them occasionally rising 

 to a considerable height, stretching out their legs behind 

 them, and flying rapidly across the river, where it is more 

 than a mile in width. 



Such is the mode of Rail-shooting in the neighbourhood 

 of Philadelphia. In Virginia, particularly along the shores 

 of James river, within the tide water, where the Rail, or 

 Sora, are in prodigious numbers, they are also shot on the 

 wing, but more usually taken at night in the following 

 manner: — A kind of iron grate is fixed on the top of a stout 

 pole, which is placed like a mast, in a light canoe, and 

 filled with fire. The darker the night, the more successful 

 is the sport. The person who manages the canoe is pro- 

 vided with a light paddle, ten or twelve feet in length; and 

 3 G 



about an hour before high-water proceeds through among 

 the reeds, which lie broken and floating on the surface. 

 The whole space, for a considerable way round the canoe, 

 is completely enlightened; the birds stare with astonish- 

 ment, and as they appear, are knocked on the head with 

 the paddle, and thrown into the canoe. In this manner 

 from twenty to eighty dozens have been killed by three 

 negroes, in the short space of three hours. 



At the same season, or a little earlier, they are very nu- 

 merous in the lagoons near Detroit, on our northern fron- 

 tiers, where another species of reeds (of which they are 

 equally fond) grows in shallows, in great abundance. Gen- 

 tlemen who have shot them there, and on whose judgment 

 I can rely, assure me, that they differ in nothing from those 

 they have usually killed on the shores of the Delaware and 

 Schuylkill; they are equally fat, and exquisite eating. On 

 the sea coast of New Jersey, where these reeds are not to 

 be found, this bird is altogether unknown; though along 

 the marshes of Maurice river, and other tributary streams 

 of the Delaware, and wherever the reeds abound, the Rail 

 are sure to be found also. Most of them leave Pennsylva- 

 nia before the end of October, and the southern States ear]}'- 

 in November; though numbers linger in the warm southern 

 marshes the whole winter. A very worthy gentleman, 

 Mr. Harrison, who lives in Kittiwan, near a creek of that 

 name, on the borders of James river, informed me, that in 

 burning his meadows early in March, they generally raise 

 and destroy several of these birds. That the great body of 

 these Rail winter in countries beyond the United States, is 

 rendered highly probable from their being so frequently 

 met with at sea, between our shores and the West India 

 islands. A captain Douglass informed me, that on his voy- 

 age from St. Domingo to Philadelphia, and more than a 

 hundred miles from the capes of the Delaware, one night 

 the man at the helm was alarmed by a sudden crash on 

 deck, that broke the glass in the binnacle, and put out the 

 light. On examining into the cause, three Rail were found 

 on deck, two of which were killed on the spot, and the 

 other died soon after. The late bishop Madison, president 

 of William and Mary college, Virginia, assured me, that a 

 Mr. Skipwith, for some time our consul in Europe, in his 

 return to the United States, when upwards of three hun- 

 dred miles from the capes of the Chesapeake, several Rail 

 or Soras, I think five or six, came on board, and were 

 caught by the people. Mr. Skipwith being well acquainted 

 with the bird, assured him that they were the very same 

 with those usually killed on James river. I have received 

 like assurances from several other gentlemen, and captains 

 of vessels, who have met with these birds between the main 

 land and the islands, so as to leave no doubt on my mind of 

 the fact. For, why should it be considered incredible that 



