110 
RALLUS CAROLINUS. 
SUBGEKUS II. — CREX, ILLIGER. 
238. RALLUS CAROLlirUS, LINN^US AND WILSOV. 
CAROLINA RAIL. 
■f^ 
WILSON, PLATE XLVIII. FIG. I. — EDINBURGH COLLEGE ' 
Of all our land or water fowl, perhaps none a So<*‘ 
the sportsman more agreeable amusement, or a 1 “'^' 
delicious repast, than the little bird now befoi'e 
This amusement is indeed temporary, lasting only t", 
or three hours in the day for four or live weeks in e3S 
year; but, as it occurs in the most agreeable •*“ 
temperate of our seasons, is attended with little or 
fatigue to the gunner, and is frequently suecessfub 
attracts numerous followers, and is pursued, in s'**': 
places as the birds frequent, with great eagerness 
enthusiiism. 
The natural history of the rail, or, as it is called 
^l»«nen\Ir» J II aI 
, 1 , 
Virginia, the sora, and in South (larolina the coot 
to the most of our sportsmen involved in profound 
inexplicable mystery. It comes, they know not whco‘'*^ 
and goes, they know not where. No one can det^ 
their lirst moment of arrival; yet all at once the re<^ 
shores, and grassy marshes, of our large rivers sn'aw 
with them, thousands being sometimes found ‘"iw' 
the space of a few acres. These, when they do vent'lb 
on wing, seem to Hy so feebly, and in such si"’! 
fluttering flights among the reed’s, as to render it hi A 
improbable to most people that they could possi''^; 
make their way over an extensive traet of coui'l^ 
Yet, on the first smart frost that occurs, the 
suddenly disajipear, as if they had never been. 
To account for these extraordinary phenomena, 't 
been supposed by some that they bury themselves 
the mud; but as this is — — - ' - ntnhe' > 
every year dug into by ditei*^^!) ' 
and people employed in repairing the banks, 
any of those sleepers being found, where but 
weeks before these birds were innumerable, this the®;. 
has been generally abandoned. And here their resean 
into this mysterious matter generally end in the conn® 
