RAIL-SHOOTING. 199 



time — the sportsman lying on the bottom at full 

 length in the stern, and the oarsman timing his 

 strokes to the violence of the sea. The waves broke 

 over us continually ; it was necessary to bail every 

 few minutes, and several had to put back when they 

 met with some more than usually heavy wave, and 

 take a fresh start, after emptying the superfluous 

 water. Of course we were drenched to the skin, 

 but found a species of consolation in knowing that 

 no one had the advantage of another. Had any of 

 our boats upset, although we might have clung to 

 them and drifted back among the reeds, we could 

 have effected a-landing nowhere, and would proba- 

 bly have terminated our career then and there; had 

 this happened to a certain little skiff that held two 

 men and very few rail, this account would probably 

 never have been written. However, fate ordained 

 otherwise, and we reached our destination in safety. 

 The best locality for rail-shooting is along the 

 marshy shores of the Delaware River, above and 

 below Philadelphia ; many birds are also killed on 

 the Hackensack and the Connecticut ; they are 

 abundant on the James River, and doubtless further 

 south, but are not shot there ; and they are found 

 scattered over the fresh as well as the salt marshes 

 throughout the entire country. I have killed them 

 in the corn-fields of Illinois while in pursuit of the 

 prairie chicken, and have bagged several and heard 

 many among the wild rice of the drowned shores of 

 Lake Erie. They are a migratory bird, and pass to 

 the southward in the early fall rather in advance of 



