RAIL. 381 



prosecuted 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 discovered, that they change into frogs! 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 expressed it, " something 

 betweei; the two." He carried it to his negroes, and afterwards took it 

 home, where it lived three days, and in his own, and his negroes' opi- 

 nion, it looked like nothing in this world but a real Sora, changing 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 renowned 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 circumstanced, and some explanation necessary, I 

 shall endeavor to throw a little more light on the subject, by a simple 

 detail 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 dis- 

 tributed over almost every region of the habitable parts of the earth. 

 The general character of these is everywhere 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 practi- 

 cable, prefer running to flying. Most of them are migratory, and 

 abound during the summer in certain countries, the inhabitants of which 

 have very rarely an opportunity of seeing 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 direction, 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 springs but when driven to extremity, and 

 generally flies with its legs hanging down, but never to a great distance ; 

 as soon as it alights it runs off', and before the fowler has reached the 

 spot, the bird is at a considerable distance."* The Water Crake, or 



* Bewick's British Birds, vol. i., p. 308. 



