36 



RAIL 



them in October are often laid under ice and snow during the 

 winter, it is as impossible that they could exist here in that incle- 

 ment season; Heaven has therefore given them, in common with 

 many others, certain prescience of these circumstances, and judg- 

 ment as well as strength of flight sufficient to seek more genial 

 climates abounding with their suitable food. 



The Rail is nine inches long, and fourteen inches in extent; 

 bill yellow, blackish towards the point; lores, front, crown, chin 

 and stripe down the throat black; line over the eye, cheeks and 

 breast fine light ash; sides of the crown, neck, and upper parts 

 generally, olive brown streaked with black, and also with long 

 lines of pure white, the feathers being centered with black on a 

 brown olive ground, and edged with white; these touches of white 

 are shorter near the shoulder of the wing, lengthening as they de- 

 scend; wing plain olive brown; tertials streaked with black and 

 long lines of white; tail pointed, dusky olive brown, centered with 

 black; the four middle feathers bordered for half their length with 

 lines of white; lower part of the breast marked with semicircular 

 lines of white on a light ash ground; belly white; sides under the 

 wings deep olive, barred with black, white and reddish buff; vent 

 brownish buff; legs, feet and naked part of the thighs yellowish 

 green; exterior edge of the wing white; eyes reddish hazel. 



The females and young of the first season have the throat 

 white, the breast pale brown, and little or no black on the head. 

 The males may always be distinguished by their ashy blue breasts 

 and black throats. 



During the greater part of the months of September and Oc- 

 tober the market of Philadelphia is abundantly supplied with Rail, 

 which are sold from half a dollar to a dollar a dozen. Soon after 

 the twentieth of October, at which time our first smart frosts ge- 

 nerally take place, these birds move off to the south. In Virginia 

 they usually remain until the first week in November. 



