RAIL. 33 



business to keep a sharp look out^ and give the word ?iiark^ when 

 a Rail springs on either side without being observed by the sports- 

 man, and to note the exact spot where it falls until he has pick- 

 ed it up; for this once lost sight of, owing to the sameness in the 

 appearance of the reeds, is seldom found again. In this man- 

 ner the boat moves steadily through and over the reeds, the birds 

 flushing and falling, the gunner loading and firing, while the boat- 

 man is pushing and picking up. The sport continues till an hour 

 or two after high water, when the shallowness of the water, and 

 the strength and weight of the floating reeds, as also the backward- 

 ness of the game to spring as the tide decreases, obliges them to 

 return. Several boats are sometimes within a short distance of 

 each other, and a perpetual cracking of musquetry prevails along 

 the whole reedy shores of the river. In these excursions it is not 

 uncommon for an active and expert marksman to kill ten or twelve 

 dozen in a tide. They are usually shot singly, tho I have known 

 five killed at one discharge of a double-barrelled piece. These in- 

 stances however are rare. 



The flight of these birds among the reeds is usually low; and, 

 shelter being abundant, is rarely extended to more than fifty or one 

 hundred yards. When winged and uninjured in their legs, they 

 swim and dive with great rapidity, and are seldom seen to rise 

 again. I have several times, on such occasions, discovered them 

 clinging with their feet to the reeds under the water, and at other 

 times skulking under the floating reeds with their bill just above 

 the surface. Sometimes when wounded they dive, and rising un- 

 der the gunwale of the boat secrete themselves there, moving round 

 as the boat moves, until they have an opportunity of escaping un- 

 noticed. They are feeble and delicate in every thing but the 

 legs, which seem to possess great vigour and energy, and their bo- 

 dies being so t-emarkably 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 constant- 



It/ 



VOL. VI. I 



