240 



RAIL. 



reeds under the water, and at other times skulking under the 

 floating reeds, with their bill iust above the surface. Some- 

 times, when wounded, they dive, and rising under the gun- 

 wale of the boat, secrete themselves there, moving round as 

 the boat moves, until they have an opportunity of escaping 

 unnoticed. They are feeble and delicate in everything but 

 the legs, which seem to possess great vigour and energy ; and 

 their bodies being so remarkably thin or compressed as to 

 be less than an inch and a quarter through transversely, they 

 are enabled to pass between the reeds like rats. When seen, 

 they are almost constantly jetting up the tail. Yet, though 

 their flight among the reeds seems feeble and fluttering, every 

 sportsman who is acquainted with them here must have seen 

 them occasionally rising to a considerable height, stretching 

 out their legs behind them, and flying rapidly across the 

 river where it is more than a mile in width. 



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 mast in a light canoe, and filled with fire. The 

 darker the night the more successful is the sport. The person 

 who manages the canoe is provided with a light paddle ten or 

 twelve feet in length, and, about an hour before high water, 

 proceeds through among the reeds, which lie broken and 

 floating on the surface. The whole space, for a considerable 

 way round the canoe, is completely enlightened ; the birds 

 stare with astonishment, and, as they appear, are knocked on 

 the head with the paddle, and thrown into the canoe. In 

 this manner, from twenty to eighty dozen have been killed by 

 three negroes in the short space of three hours ! 



At the same season, or a little earlier, they are very numer- 

 ous in the lagoons near Detroit, on our northern frontiers, 

 where another species of reed (of which they are equally fond) 



