154 YELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. 



which I opened was filled with minute fresh-water shell-fish and gravel. 

 They feed also on insects of various kinds, and the seeds of grasses. 



My friend Thomas Nuttall has so well described the notes of this bird, 

 that I cannot do better than present you with his account of them. "On the 

 6th of October, 1831, having spent the night in a lodge, on the borders of 

 Fresh Pond, employed for decoying and shooting Ducks, I heard, about sun- 

 rise, the Yellow-breasted Rails begin to stir among the reeds (Jlrundo 

 Phragmites) that thickly skirt this retired border of the lake, and in which, 

 among a host of various kinds of Blackbirds, they had for sometime roosted 

 every night. As soon as awake, they called out in an abrupt and cackling 

 cry, 'krlk, 'Jcrek, 'Terek, 'krek, 'kick' k'kk, which note, apparently from the 

 young, was answered by the parent (probably the hen) in a lower soothing 

 note. The whole of these uncouth and guttural notes have no bad resem- 

 blance to the croaking of the tree frog, as to sound. This call and answer, 

 uttered every morning, is thus kept up for several minutes in various tones, 

 till the whole family, separated for the night, have met and satisfactorily re- 

 cognised each other." 



I once shot a female bird of this species near New Orleans upon which I 

 had nearly trodden as she was on the nest and about to lay an egg, and 

 which she dropped as she flew before me, previously to my touching the 

 trigger. In August and September I have found this species uncommonly 

 fat, and most delicious. The difficulty of procuring them, however, renders 

 them a rarity for the table even in those parts of the country where they are 

 most abundant. 



I have no doubt that a few stragglers now and then go far north to breed, 

 as I find in the Fauna Boreali-Americana the following note from Mr. Hut- 

 chins's manuscripts: — " This elegant bird is an inhabitant of the marshes (on 

 the coast of Hudson's Bay, near the efflux of Severn river, where Mr. Hut- 

 chins resided) from the middle of May to the end of September. It never 

 flies above sixty yards at a time, but runs with great rapidity among the long 

 grass near the shores. In the morning and evening it utters a note, which 

 resembles the striking of a flint and steel; at other times it makes a shrieking 

 noise. It builds no nest, but lays from ten to sixteen perfectly white eggs 

 among the grass." 



Now, this making no nest is to me a convincing proof that the species is 

 not there in its natural place, but finding itself pushed for time, and yet 

 obliged to breed, is contented to do so under unfavourable circumstances. 

 Dr. Richardson, who spent several years in the northern parts of America, 

 did not meet with this species. I saw none in Labrador or Newfoundland; 

 and in the British provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the only 

 bird of this family known is the Sora, Ortygometra carolinus. 



