148 THE SORA RAIL. 



leaves, with as much ease as it walks on the floating garbage, when persons 

 in boats can see them without any difficulty. Whenever these occurrences 

 take place, and the country around is thickly peopled, great havoc is made 

 among them. This particularly happens on the James and Delaware rivers, 

 where thousands are annually destroyed during their autumnal stay. The 

 sport of shooting Soras is much akin to that of shooting Clapper Rails, or 

 Salt-water Marsh-hens. But Wilson having given an account of it, as 

 pursued when Soras were much more abundant than I ever saw them, I 

 shall transcribe his description of the manner adopted by the sportsmen on 

 the Delaware. 



"The usual method of shooting them, in this quarter of the country, is as 

 follows: — The sportsman furnishes himself with a light batteau, and a stout 

 experienced boatman, with a pole of twelve or fifteen feet long, thickened at 

 the lower end to prevent it from sinking too deep into the mud. About 

 two hours or so before high water, they enter the reeds, and each takes his 

 post, the sportsman standing in the bow ready for action, the boatman, on 

 the stern seat, pushing her steadily through the reeds. The Rail generally 

 spring singly, as the boat advances, and at a short distance ahead, are in- 

 stantly shot down, while the boatman, keeping his eye on the spot where the 

 bird fell, directs the boat forward, and picks it up as the gunner is loading. 

 It is also the boatman's business to keep a sharp look-out, and give the word 

 'mark!' when a Rail springs on either side without being observed by the 

 sportsman, and to note the exact spot where it falls until he has picked it up; 

 for this once lost sight of, owing to the sameness in the appearance of the 

 reeds, is seldom found again. In this manner the boat moves steadily 

 through and over the reeds, the birds flushing and falling, the gunner loading 

 and firing, while the boatman is pushing and picking up. The sport con- 

 tinues till an hour or two after high water, when the shallowness of the 

 water, and the strength and weight of the floating reeds, as also the back- 

 wardness of the game to spring as the tide decreases, oblige them to return. 

 Several boats are sometimes within a short distance of each other, and a 

 perpetual cracking of musketry prevails along the whole reedy shores of the 

 river. In these excursions it is not uncommon for an active and expert 

 marksman to kill ten or twelve dozen in a tide. They are usually shot 

 singly, though I have known five killed at one discharge of a double- 

 barrelled piece. These instances, however, are rare." 



"Such is the mode of Rail shooting in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia. 

 In Virginia, particularly along the shores of James river, within the tide 

 water, where the Rail or Sora are in prodigious numbers, they are also shot 

 on the wing, but more usually taken at night in the following manner: — A 

 kind of iron grate is fixed on the top of a stout pole, which is placed like a 



