176 THE VIRGINIAN RAIL. 



cunning for me, as, on discovering that the wings of the net were in their 

 way, they would get over it in the same manner as that in which a sailor 

 mounts the shrouds of a ship. Our Common Coot uses the same artifice. 



The nest of the Virginian Rail is not easily found after incubation has 

 commenced, for then the male, contrary to the habits of most birds, becomes 

 comparatively silent, and the female quite mute. At such times I have once 

 or twice almost trodden on one, which I should never have discovered, had 

 not the poor bird fluttered off in despair, employing all the artifices used by 

 other species on such occasions. It is placed on a small elevation formed by 

 the accumulation of the stalks of a large bunch of grasses, in the centre of 

 which some dry weeds are arranged to the height of two or three inches, 

 with a very shallow cavity.. The eggs are four or five, seldom more than 

 six or seven, and resemble in colour those of the Rallus crepitans, although 

 smaller, measuring an inch and a quarter in length, by eleven-twelfths in 

 breadth, and being rather more rounded. The young are covered with a jet 

 black down, and run after their mother as soon as they make their escape 

 from the egg; — at least I suppose this to be the case, on account of my 

 having caught some that seemed newly hatched. The mother leads them 

 with the greatest care among the long grass of the damp meadows, or the 

 weeds growing near the ponds, to which they resort at all times, and par- 

 ticularly near the margins of pools or muddy streams, into which they run 

 and disperse on the least appearance of danger. When no water is near, 

 the little ones squat in silence, and await the call of their parent, to which 

 all at once answer, when they quickly collect once more around her. 



This species is able to cling to, and climb along the blades of tall grasses, 

 even under water, when in danger, and is equally able to swim gracefully to 

 a considerable distance, as to alight on low bushes, in which situation I have 

 shot a few of them. When amid the broad leaves of water-lilies, they walk 

 and run on them with as much ease as the Gallinules. When pursued, the 

 Virginian Rail is, with great difficulty, put up, as I have already mentioned, 

 but when it is once on wing it may be shot by a very ordinary gunner. It 

 rises without noise, flies off with its legs dangling and its neck stretched out, 

 but seldom proceeds farther than twenty or thirty yards at a time, unless 

 when it has a stream to cross, or during its migrations. Like all the other 

 species with which I am acquainted, it feeds both by day and by night. Its 

 food consists of small slugs, snails, aquatic insects, worms, Crustacea, and the 

 seeds of those grasses which grow in salt or fresh water marshes, in either 

 of which they reside and even breed. I have not been able to ascertain 

 whether they lay more than once in the season; but, on account of the com- 

 paratively small number of this species, I am inclined to suppose that they 



