RAIL. 



24I 



grows in shallows in great abundance. Gentlemen who have 



shot them there, and on whose judgment I can rely, assure 



me that they differ in nothing from those they have usually 



killed on the shores of the Delaware and Schuylkill : they are 



equally fat, and exquisite eating. On the sea-coast of New 



Jersey, where these reeds are not to be found, this bird is 



altogether unknown ; though along the marshes of Maurice 



Kiver, and other tributary streams of the Delaware, and where- 



ever the reeds abound, the rail are sure to be found also. 



Most of them leave Pennsylvania before the end of October, 



and the southern States early in November, though numbers 



linger in the warm southern marshes the whole winter. A 



very worthy gentleman, Mr Harrison, who lives in Kittiwan, 



near a creek of that name, on the borders of James Kiver. 



informed me, that, in burning his meadows early in March, 



they generally raise and destroy several of these birds. That 



the great body of these rail winter in countries beyond the 



United States is rendered highly probable from their being 



so frequently met with at sea, between our shores and the 



West India islands. A Captain Douglas informed me, that 



on his voyage from St Domingo to Philadelphia, and more 



than a hundred miles from the capes of the Delaware, one 



night the man at the helm was alarmed by a sudden crash on 



deck that broke the glass in the binnacle, and put out the 



light. On examining into the cause, three rail were found on 



deck, two of which were killed on the spot, and the other 



died soon after. The late Bishop Madison, president of 



William and Mary College, Virginia, assured me that a Mr 



Skipwith, for some time our consul in Europe, on his return 



to the United States, when upwards of three hundred miles 



from the capes of the Chesapeake, several rail, or soras, I 



think five or six, came on board, and were caught by the 



people. Mr Skipwith, being well acquainted with the bird, 



assured him that they were the very same with those usually 



killed on James Kiver. I have received like assurances from 



several other gentlemen and captains of vessels who have met 

 vol. 11. 



