AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
209 
by the sportsman, and to note the exact spot where it falls, 
until he has picked it up; for this once lost sight of, owing 
to the sameness in the appearance of the reeds, is seldom 
found again. In this manner the boat moves steadily 
through, and over the reeds, the birds flushing and falling, 
the gunner loading and firing, while the boatman is push- 
ing 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 backwardness 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 dozens in a tide. 
They are usually shot singly, though I have known five 
killed at one discharge of a double-barrelled piece. These 
instances, 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 unin- 
jured 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 under 
the gunwale of the boat, secrete themselves there, moving 
round as the boat moves, until they have an opportunity of 
escaping unnoticed. They are feeble and delicate in every 
thing but the legs, which seem to possess great vigour and 
energy; and their bodies being so remarkably thin, or com- 
pressed, 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 constantly jetting 
up the tail. Yet, though their flight among the reeds seems 
feeble and fluttering, every sportsman, who is acquainted 
with them here, must have seen them occasionally rising 
to a considerable height, stretching out their legs behind 
them, and flying rapidly across the river, where it is more 
than a mile in width. 
Such is the mode of Rail-shooting in the neighbourhood 
of Philadelphia. In Virginia, particularly along the shores 
of James river, within the tide water, where the Rail, or 
Sora, are in prodigious numbers, they are also shot on the 
wing, but more usually taken at night in the following 
manner: — A kind of iron grate is fixed on the top of a stout 
pole, which is placed like a mast, in a light canoe, and 
filled with fire. The darker the night, the more successful 
is the sport. The person who manages the canoe is pro- 
vided with a light paddle, ten or twelve feet in length; and 
3 G 
about an hour before high-water proceeds through among 
the reeds, which lie broken and floating on the surface. 
The whole space, for a considerable way round the canoe, 
is completely enlightened; the birds stare with astonish- 
ment, and as they appear, are knocked on the head with 
the paddle, and thrown into the canoe. In this manner 
from twenty to eighty dozens have been killed by three 
negroes, in the short space of three hours. 
At the same season, or a little earlier, they are very nu- 
merous in the lagoons near Detroit, on our northern fron- 
tiers, where another species of reeds (of which they are 
equally fond) grows in shallows, in great abundance. Gen- 
tlemen who have shot them there, and on whose judgment 
I can rely, assure me, that they differ in nothing from those 
they have usually killed on the shores of the Delaware and 
Schuylkill; they are equally fat, and exquisite eating. On 
the sea coast of New Jersey, where these reeds are not to 
be found, this bird is altogether unknown; though along 
the marshes of Maurice river, and other tributary streams 
of the Delaware, and wherever the reeds abound, the Rail 
are sure to be found also. Most of them leave Pennsylva- 
nia before the end of October, and the southern States early 
in November; though numbers linger in the warm southern 
marshes the whole winter. A very worthy gentleman, 
Mr. Harrison, who lives in Kittiwan, near a creek of that 
name, on the borders of James river, informed me, that in 
burning 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 voy- 
age 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 examining 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, Virginia, assured me, that a 
Mr. Skipwith, for some time our consul in Europe, in his 
return to the United States, when upwards of three hun- 
dred miles from the capes of the Chesapeake, 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 
