RAIL. 421 
It is not, therefore, at dll surprising, that the regular migrations of 
the American Rail, or Sora, should in like manner have escaped notice 
in a country like this, whose population bears so small a proportion to 
its extent, and where the study of natural history is so little attended 
to. But that these migrations do actually take place, from north to 
south, and vice versa, may be fairly inferred from the common practice 
of thousands of other species of birds less solicitous of concealment, 
and also from the following facts: 
_On the 22d day of February, [ killed two of these birds in the 
neighborhood of Savannah, in Georgia, where they have never been 
observed during the summer. On the 2d of the May following, I shot 
another in a watery thicket below Philadelphia, between the rivers 
Schuylkill and Delaware, in what is usually called the Neck.’ This 
last was a male, in full plumage. We are also informed, that they 
arrive at Hudson’s Bay early in June, and again leave that settlement 
for the south early in autumn. That many of them also remain here 
to breed is proven by the testimony of persons of credit and intelligence 
with whom I have conversed, both here and on James River, in Vir- 
ginia, who have seen their nests, eggs, and young. In the extensive 
meadows that border the Schuylkill and Delaware, it was formerly 
common, before the country was so thickly settled there, to find young 
Rail, in the first mowing time, among the grass. Mr. James Bartram, 
brother to the botanist, a venerable and still active man of eighty-three, 
and well acquainted with this bird, says, that he has often seen and 
caught young Rail in his own meadows in the month of June; he has 
also seen their nest, which he says is usually in a. tussock of grass, is 
formed of a little dry grass, and has four or five eggs, of a dirty whitish 
color, with brown or blackish spots ; the young run off as soon as they 
break the shell, are then quite black, and run about among the grass 
like mice. The old ones he has very rarely observed at that time, but 
the young often. Almost every old settler along these meadows, with 
whom I have conversed, has occasionally seen young Rail in mowing 
time; and all agree in describing them as covered with blackish down. 
There can, therefore, be no reasonable doubt as to the residence of 
many of these birds, both here and to the northward, during the sum- 
mer. That there can be as little doubt relative to their winter retreat, 
will appear more particularly towards the sequel of the present account. 
During their residence here, in summer, their manners exactly corre- 
spond with those of the Water Crake of Britain, already quoted, so 
that, though actually a different species, their particular habits, com- 
mon places of resort, and eagerness for concealment, are as nearly the 
same as the nature of the climates will admit. 
Early in August, when the reeds along the shores of the Delaware 
have attained their full growth, the Rail resort to them in great num- 
bers, to feed on the seeds of this plant, of which they, as well as the 
Rice Birds, and several others, are immoderately fond. These reeds, 
which appear to be the Zizania panicula effusa of Linneus, and the 
Zizania clavulosa of Willdenow, grow up from the soft muddy shores 
of the tide water, which are alternately dry, and covered with four or 
five feet of water. They rise with an erect, tapering stem, to the 
height of eight or ten feet, being nearly as thick below as a man’s 
wrist, and cover a along the river of many acres. The cattle feed 
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