RAIL 



35 



the southern states early in November; tho numbers linger in the 

 warm southern marshes the whole winter. A very worthy gentle- 

 man, Mr. Harrison, who lives in Kittiwan, near a creek of that 

 name, on the borders of James river, informed me, that in burn- 

 ing 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 Douglass 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 exa- 

 mining 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, Virgi- 

 nia, 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 Chesapeak, 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 river. I have received like assurances from several other 

 gentlemen and captains of vessels who have met with these birds 

 between the main land and the islands, so as to leave no doubt on 

 my mind of the fact. For, why should it be considered incredible 

 that a bird which can both swim and dive well, and at pleasure fly 

 with great rapidity, as I have myself frequently witnessed, should 

 be incapable of migrating like so many others over extensive tracts 

 of land or sea? Inhabiting, as they do, the remote regions of Hud- 

 son's Bay, where it is impossible they could subsist during the 

 rigors of their winter, they must either emigrate from thence or 

 perish; and as the same places in Pennsylvania which abound with 



