RAIL. 
233 
yet all at once the reedy shores and grassy marshes of our 
large rivers swarm with them, thousands being sometimes 
found within the space of a few acres. These, when they do 
venture on wing, seem to fly so feebly, and in such short flutter- 
ing flights among the reeds, as to render it highly improbable 
to most people that they could possibly make their way over 
an extensive tract of country. Yet, on the first smart frost 
that occurs, the whole suddenly disappear, as if they had 
never been. 
To account for these extraordinary phenomena, it has been 
supposed by some that they bury themselves in the mud ; but 
as this is every year dug into by ditchers, and people employed 
in repairing the banks, without any of those sleepers being 
found, where but a few weeks before these birds were innu- 
merable, this theory has been generally abandoned. And 
here their researches into this mysterious matter generally 
end in the common exclamation of “ What can become of 
them !” Some profound inquirers, however, not discouraged 
with these difficulties, have prosecuted their researches with 
more success ; and one of those, living a few years ago near 
the mouth of James River, in Virginia, where the Rail, or 
Sora, are extremely numerous, has (as I was informed on the 
spot) lately discovered that they change into frogs ! having 
himself found in his meadows an animal of an extraordinary 
kind, that appeared to be neither a Sora nor a frog, but, as he 
expressed it, fi£ something between the two.” He carried it to 
his negroes, and afterwards took it home, where it lived three 
days ; and in his own and his negroes’ opinion, it looked like 
nothing in this world but a real Sora changing into a frog ! 
What farther confirms this grand discovery is the well known 
circumstance of the frogs ceasing to hollow as soon as the Sora 
comes in the fall. 
This sagacious discoverer, however, like many others 
renowned in history, has found but few supporters, and, 
except his own negroes, has not, as far as I can learn, made a 
single convert to his opinion. Matters being so circumstanced, 
