210 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY 



a bird which can both swim and dive well, and at pleasure 

 fly with great rapidity, as I have myself frequently wit- 

 nessed, should be incapable of migrating, like so many 

 others, over extensive tracts of land or sea? Inhabiting, as 

 they do, the remote regions of Hudson's Bay, where it is 

 impossible they could subsist during the rigors of their 

 winter, they must either emigrate thence or perish; and as 

 the same places in Pennsylvania, which abound with them 

 in October, are often laid under ice and snow during the 

 winter, it is as impossible that they could exist here in that 

 inclement season; Heaven has therefore given them, in 

 common with many others, certain prescience of these cir- 

 cumstances; and judgment, as well as strength of flight, suf- 

 ficient to seek more genial climates, abounding with their 

 suitable food. 



The Rail is nine inches long, and fourteen inches in 

 extent; bill yellow, blackish towards the point; lores, front, 

 crown, chin, and stripe down the throat, black; line over 

 the eye, cheeks and breast, fine light ash; sides of the 

 crown, neck, and upper parts gcnerallj^, olive brown, 

 streaked with black, and also with long lines of pure white, 

 the feathers being centred with black, on a brown olive 

 ground, and edged with white; these touches of white are 

 shorter near the shoulder of the wing, lengthening as they 

 descend; wing plain olive brown; tertials streaked with 

 black and long lines of white; tail pointed, dusky olive 

 brown, centered with black, the four middle feathers bor- 

 dered for half their length with lines of white; lower part 

 of the breast marked with semicircular lines of white, on a 

 light ash ground; belly white; sides under the wings deep 

 olive, barred with black, white and reddish huff; vent 

 brownish buff; legs, feet and naked part of the thighs, yel- 

 lowish green; exterior edge of the wing white; eyes red- 

 dish hazel. 



The females and young of the first season, have the throat 

 white, the breast pale biown, and little or no black on the 

 head. The males may always be distinguished by their 

 ashy blue breasts, and black throats. 



During the greater part of the months of September and 

 October, the market of Philadelphia is abundantly supplied 

 with Rail, which are sold from half a dollar to a dollar a 

 dozen. Soon after the twentieth of October, at which time 

 our first smart frosts generally take place, these birds move 

 off to the south. In Virginia they usually remain until the 

 first week in November. 



Since the above was written, I have received from Mr. 

 George Ord, of Philadelphia, some curious particulars rela- 

 tive to this bird, which, as they are new, and come from a 

 gentleman of respectability, are worthy of being recorded, 

 and merit further investigation. 



"My personal experience," says Mr. Ord, "has made 



me acquainted with a fact in the history of the Rail, which 

 perhaps is not generally known; and I shall, as briefly as 

 possible, communicate it to you. Some time in the autumn 

 of the year 1809, as I was walking in a yard, after a severe 

 shower of rain, I perceived the feet of a bird projecting 

 from a spout. I pulled it out, and discovered it to be a 

 Rail, very vigorous, and in perfect health. The bird was 

 placed in a small room, on a gin-case; and I was amusing 

 myself with it, when, in the act of pointing my finger at it, 

 it suddenly sprang forward, apparently much irritated, fell 

 to the floor, and stretching out its feet, and bending its 

 neck, until the head nearly touched the back, became to all 

 appearance lifeless. Thinking the fall had killed the bird, 

 I took it up, and began to lament my rashness in provoking 

 it. In a few minutes it again breathed; and it was some 

 time before it perfectly recovered from the fit, into which, 

 it now appeared evident, it had fallen. I placed the Rail 

 in a room, wherein Canary birds were confined; and re- 

 solved that, on the succeeding day, I would endeavour to 

 discover whether or not the passion of anger had produced 

 the fit. I entered the room at the appointed time, and 

 approached the bird, which had retired, on beholding me, 

 in a sullen humour, to a corner. On pointing my finger at 

 it, its feathers were immediately ruffled; and in an instant 

 it sprang forward, as in the first instance, and fell into a 

 similar fit. The following day the experiment was repeat- 

 ed, with the like effect. In the autumn of 181 1, as I was 

 shooting amongst the reeds, I perceived a Rail rise but a 

 few feet before my battcau. The bird had risen about a 

 yard when it became entangled in the tops of a small bunch 

 of reeds, and immediately fell. Its feet and neck were 

 extended, as in the instances above mentioned; and before 

 it had time to recover, I killed it. Some few days after- 

 wards, as a friend and I were shooting in the same place, 

 he killed a Rail, and, as we approached the spot to pick it 

 up, another was perceived, not a foot off, in a fit. I took 

 up the bird, and placed it in the crown of my hat. In a 

 few moments it revived, and was as vigorous as ever. 

 These facts go to prove, that the Rail is subject to gusts of 

 passion, which operate to so violent a degree as to produce 

 a disease, similar in its effects so epilepsy. I leave the ex- 

 plication of the phenomenon to those pathologists who are 

 competent and willing to investigate it. It may be worthy 

 of remark, that the birds affected as described, were all 

 females of the Ralhis Carollnus, or Common Rail. 



"The Rail, though generally reputed a simple bird, will 

 sometimes manifest symptoms of considerable intelligence. 

 To those acquainted with Rail shooting, it is hardly neces- 

 sary to mention, that the tide, in its flux, is considered an 

 almost indispensaijle auxiliary; for, when the water is off 

 the marsh, the lubricity of the mud, the height and com- 



