28 



RAIL 



To account for these extraordinary phenomena it has been 

 supposed by some that they bury themselves in the mud; but as 

 this is every year dug into by ditchers and people employed in 

 repairing the banks, without any of those sleepers being found, 

 where but a few weeks before these birds were innumerable, this 

 theory has been generally abandoned. And here their researches 

 into this mysterious matter generally end in the common excla- 

 mation of "What can become of them!^' Some profound enqui- 

 rers, however, not discouraged with these difficulties, have prose- 

 cuted their researches with more success ; and one of those, living 

 a few years ago near the mouth of James river in Virginia, where 

 the Rail or Sora are extremely numerous, has (as I was informed 

 on the spot) lately discovered that they change into frogs ! having 

 himself found in his meadows an animal of an extraordinary kind, 

 that appeared to be neither a Sora nor a frog; but, as he express- 

 ed it, " something between the two/^ He carried it to his negroes, 

 and afterwards took it home, where it lived three days; and in 

 his own and his negroes^ opinion, it looked like nothing in this 

 world but a real Sora changing into a frog! What farther con- 

 firms this grand discovery is the well known circumstance of the 

 frogs ceasing to hollow as soon as the Sora comes in the Fall. 



This sagacious discoverer, however, like many others re- 

 nowned in history, has found but few supporters, and except his 

 own negroes, has not, as far as I can learn, made a single convert 

 to his opinion. Matters being so circumstanced, and some expla- 

 nation necessary, I shall endeavour to throw a little more light on 

 the subject by a simple detail of facts, leaving the reader to form 

 liis own theory as he pleases. 



The Rail or Sora belongs to a genus of birds of which about 

 thirty different species are enumerated by naturalists; and those 

 are distributed over almost every region of the habitable parts of 

 the earth. The general character of these is every where the 

 same. They run swiftly, fly slowly, and usually with the legs 



