152 
YELL OW - BREASTED RAIL. 
Ortygometra Noveboracencis, Lath. 
PLATE COCYIL— Male. 
The Prince of Musignano, who purchased one of these birds in the New 
York market in February, 1826, gave a figure of it, and considered it as an 
arctic species. This opinion, however, is incorrect, for the Yellow-breasted 
Rail is a constant resident in the Peninsula of the Floridas, as well as in the 
lower parts of Louisiana, where I have found it at all seasons. That a few 
straggling individuals should proceed northwards, advancing even to pretty 
high latitudes, is not much to be wondered at, as we have a similar case in 
the Common Gallinule. But at the season mentioned the individual referred 
to must have been forced thither by a storm, as no Rails of any kind are 
found in that part of the country in winter. 
In the neighbourhood of New Orleans, this species is found in all the 
deserted savannahs, covered with thick long grass, and pools of shallow 
water. There you hear its sharp and curiogs notes many times in the course 
of the day, just as you hear those of Rallus crepitans near the sea-shore, 
more especially after the report of a gun, when they are louder and more 
quickly repeated. These sounds come on the ear so as to induce you to 
believe that a bird is near ; but whether this be the case or not is not easily 
determined, for when you move towards a spot in which you suppose it to 
be, the sounds recede at your approach, and you may think yourself fortu- 
nate if, after half an hour of search, you discover one on wing. Indeed, if 
we have a bird in America approaching in its habits the Corn Crake of 
Europe, it is the Yellow-breasted Rail : it also resembles in its habits the 
European Quail, a bird as fond at times of damp meadows bordering rivers 
as this species is wont to be, when it seeks for a place of safety in which to 
form its nest and rear its young. 
In the Floridas, this bird is more abundant than even in Louisiana : and I 
met with it frequently in the course of my wanderings there, not only on 
the mainland but also on several of the keys, where they begin breeding in 
March. On Sandy Island, near Cape Sable, I found several pairs, in May, 
1832. About New Orleans it commences breeding at the same period. Dr. 
Bachman has procured specimens near Charleston. I have also found a few 
