RAIL. 
331 
prosecuted 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 expressed 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' opi- 
nion, it looked like nothing in this world but a real Sora, changing into 
a frog ! What farther confirms 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 renowned in 
history, has found but a 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 explanation necessary, I 
shall endeavor to throw a little more light on the subject, by a simple 
detail of facts, leaving the reader to form his 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 these are dis- 
tributed over almost every region of the habitable parts of the earth. 
The general character of these is everywhere the same. They run 
swiftly, fly slowly, and usually with the legs hanging down ; become 
extremely fat ; are fond of concealment ; and, wherever it is practi- 
cable, prefer running to flying. Most of them are migratory, and 
abound during the summer in certain countries, the inhabitants of which 
have very rarely an opportunity of seeing them. Of this last the Land 
Rail of Britain is a striking example. This bird, which, during the 
summer months, may be heard in almost every grass and clover field in 
the kingdom, uttering its common note crek, crek, from sunset to a late 
hour in the night, is yet unknown, by sight, to more than nine-tenths 
of the inhabitants. "Its well known cry," says Bewick, "is first heard 
as soon as the grass becomes long enough to shelter it, and continues 
till the grass is cut ; but the bird is seldom seen, for it constantly skulks 
among the thickest part of the herbage, and runs so nimbly through it, 
winding and doubling in every direction, that it is difficult to come near 
it ; when hard pushed by the dog, it sometimes stops short, and squats 
down, by which means its too eager pursuer overshoots the spot, and 
loses the trace. It seldom springs but when driven to extremity, and 
generally flies with its legs hanging down, but never to a great distance ; 
as soon as it alights it runs off, and before the fowler has reached the 
spot, the bird is at a considerable distance."* The Water Crake, or 
* Bewick's British Birds, vol. i., p. 308. 
