148 
THE SOEA BAIL. 
leaves, with as much ease as it walks on the floating garbage, when persons 
in boats can see them without any difficulty. Whenever these occurrences 
take place, and the country around is thickly peopled, great havoc is made 
among them. This particularly happens on the James and Delaware rivers, 
where thousands are annually destroyed during their autumnal stay. The 
sport of shooting Soras is much akin to that of shooting Clapper Rails, or 
Salt-water Marsh-hens. Bat Wilson having given an account of it, as 
pursued when Soras were much more abundant than I ever saw them, I 
shall transcribe his description of the manner adopted by the sportsmen on 
the Delaware. 
“ The usual method of shooting them, in this quarter of the country, is as 
follows : — The sportsman furnishes himself with a light batteau, and a stout 
experienced boatman, with a pole of twelve or fifteen feet long, thickened at 
the lower end to prevent it from sinking too deep into the mud. About 
two hours or so before high water, they enter the reeds, and each takes his 
post, the sportsman standing in the bow ready for action, the boatman, on 
the stern seat, pushing her steadily through the reeds. The Rail generally 
spring singly, as the boat advances, and at a short distance ahead, are in- 
stantly shot down, while the boatman, keeping his eye on the spot where the 
bird fell, directs the boat forward, and picks it up as the gunner is loading. 
It is also the boatman’s business to keep a sharp look-out, and give the word 
‘mark!’ when a Rail springs on either side without being observed 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 pushing and picking up. The sport con- 
tinues 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 back- 
wardness of the game to spring as the tide decreases, oblige them to return. 
Several boats are sometimes within a short distance of each other, and a 
perpetual cracking of musketry 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 do'zen 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. 
“ 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 
