210 
THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY 
a bird which can both swim and dive well, and at pleasure 
fly with great rapidity, as I have myself frequently wit- 
nessed, should be incapable of migrating, like so many 
others, over extensive tracts of land or sea? Inhabiting, as 
they do, the remote regions of Hudson’s Bay, where it is 
impossible they could subsist during the rigors of their 
winter, they must either emigrate thence or perish; and as 
the same places in Pennsylvania, which abound with them 
in October, are often laid under ice and snow during the 
winter, it is as impossible that they could exist here in that 
inclement season; Heaven has , therefore given them, in 
common with many others, certain prescience of these cir- 
cumstances; and judgment, as well as strength of flight, suf- 
ficient to seek more genial climates, abounding with their 
suitable food. 
The Rail is nine inches long, and fourteen inches in 
extent; bill yellow, blackish towards the point; lores, front, 
crown, chin, and stripe down the throat, black; line over 
the eye, cheeks and breast, fine light ash; sides of the 
crown, neck, and upper parts generally, olive brown, 
streaked with black, and also with long lines of pure white, 
the feathers being centred with black, on a brown olive 
ground, and edged with white; these touches of white are 
shorter near the shoulder of the wing, lengthening as they 
descend ; wing plain olive brown ; tertials streaked with 
black and long lines of white; tail pointed, dusky olive 
brown, centered with black, the four middle feathers bor- 
dered for half their length with lines of white; lower part 
of the breast marked with semicircular lines of white, on a 
light ash ground; belly white; sides under the wings deep 
olive, barred with black, white and reddish buff; vent 
brownish buff; legs, feet and naked part of the thighs, yel- 
lowish green; exterior edge of the wing white; eyes red- 
dish hazel. 
The females and young of the first season, have the throat 
white, the breast pale brown, and little or no black on the 
head. The males may always be distinguished by their 
ashy blue breasts, and black throats. 
During the greater part of the months of September and 
October, the market of Philadelphia is abundantly supplied 
with Rail, which are sold from half a dollar to a dollar a 
dozen. Soon after the- twentieth of October, at which time 
our first smart frosts generally take place, these birds move 
off to the south. In Virginia they usually remain until the 
first week in November. 
Since the above was written, I have received from Mr. 
George Qrd, of Philadelphia, some curious particulars rela- 
tive to this bird, which, as they are new, and come from a 
gentleman of respectability, are worthy of being recorded, 
and merit further investigation. 
“ My personal experience,” says Mr. Ord, “has made 
me acquainted with a fact in the history of the Rail, which 
perhaps is not generally known; and I shall, as briefly as 
possible, communicate it to you. Some time in the autumn 
of the year 1809, as I was walking in a yard, after a severe 
shower of rain, I perceived the feet of a bird projecting 
from a spout. I pulled it out, and discovered it to be a 
Rail, very vigorous, and in perfect health. The bird was 
placed in a small room, on a gin-case; and I was amusing 
myself with it, when, in the act of pointing my finger at it, 
it suddenly sprang forward, apparently much irritated, fell 
to the floor, and stretching out its feet, and bending its 
neck, until- the head nearly touched the back, became to all 
appearance lifeless. Thinking the fall had killed the bird, 
I took it up, and began to lament my rashness in provoking 
it. In a few minutes it again breathed; and it was some 
time before it perfectly recovered from the fit, into which, 
it now appeared evident, it had fallen. I placed the Rail 
in a room, wherein Canary birds were confined; and re- 
solved that, on the succeeding day, I would endeavour to 
discover whether or not the passion of anger had produced 
the fit. I entered the room at the appointed time, and 
approached the bird, which had retired, on beholding me, 
in a sullen humour, to a corner. On pointing my finger at 
it, its feathers were immediately ruffled; and in an instant 
it sprang forward, as in the first instance, and fell into a 
similar fit. The following day the experiment was repeat- 1 
ed, with the like effect. In the autumn of 1811, as I was 
shooting amongst the reeds, I perceived a Rail rise but a 
few feet before my batteau. The bird had risen about a 
yard when it became entangled in the tops of a small bunch 
of reeds, and immediately fell. Its feet and neck were 
extended, as in the instances above mentioned; and before 
it had time to recover, I killed it. Some few days after- 
wards, as a friend and I were shooting in the same place, 
he killed a Rail, and, as we approached the spot to pick it 
up, another was perceived, not a foot off, in a fit. I took 
up the bird, and placed it in the crown of my hat. In a 
few moments it revived, and was as vigorous as ever. 
These facts go to prove, that the Rail is subject to gusts of 
passion, which operate to so violent a degree as to produce 
a disease, similar in its effects so epilepsy. I leave the ex- 
plication of the phenomenon to those pathologists who are 
competent and willing to investigate it. It may be worthy 
of remark, that the birds affected as described, were all 
females of the Rallus Carolinus, or Common Rail. 
“ The Rail, though generally reputed a simple bird, will 
sometimes manifest symptoms of considerable intelligence. 
To those acquainted with Rail shooting, it is hardly neces- 
sary to mention, that the tide, in its flux, is considered an 
almost indispensable auxiliary; for, when the water is off 
the marsh, the lubricity of the mud, the height and com- 
