No. 87.] BIRD NAMES. 133 



The more common way of killing rail is familiar to many of 

 us, viz., shooting them at high tide from the bow of a boat which 

 is being poled through reeds and rushes by a man at the stern. 

 In some localities, however, no powder is wasted. In the vicin- 

 ity of Wilmington, N". C, for instance, the negroes, who do the 

 greater part of the rail-killing, hunt them at night with pine 

 torch and whip of brush-wood. The birds, interrupted at their 

 supper of rice, wild oats, etc., are knocked down by this handful 

 of brush, as they sit dazed by the light, or as they lazily attempt 

 to wing their fat little bodies from harm's way. Neatly picked 

 and tied in bunches, they bring the darkies from fifty to seventy- 

 five cents per dozen. 

 9* 



