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YELLOW-BREASTED RAIL. 
general resemblance in plumage and size to the true Quail of 
Europe; besides which we have received it ourselves from the 
extreme northern limits of the American continent, and have 
information of its inhabiting near the most north-western lakes, 
such as the Athabasca. 
The Crakes, as well as the true Rails, lead a solitary life: they 
are timid and shy, screening themselves from observation amidst 
the tall reeds, so as hardly ever to be seen except when surprised, 
which does not very often happen, and forced for a moment to 
have recourse to their short wings. But they prefer to evade 
dangers by their rapid movements among the aquatic herbage, 
which the compressed form of their body enables them to execute 
with the greatest facility, however entangled the stalks, or narrow 
the interstices. They also swim and dive tolerably well, when 
compelled to take the water, hiding all but the tip of the bill, but 
are by no means so essentially aquatic as the Gallinules, or their 
close relatives the Porphyriones. They also breed in marshes, 
among weeds and thickets, placing the nest near the water’s edge, 
or, fastening it to the reeds, they build a floating habitation. In 
most of the species, (how it is in the present we do not know,) 
the eggs are about eight, generally seven or nine in number, their 
colour being always of a green more or less tinged with olive, 
and very oval in shape. Different in this from the Gallinules, 
they prefer stagnant to clear waters, and always keep where the 
grass is high, and particularly avoid sand and exposed shores. 
Notwithstanding their apparently limited powers of flight, and a 
conformation similar to that of the sedentary and unenterprising 
Gallinules, they periodically undertake great journies. They 
walk with agility and ease, raising, their head, elevating their 
feet, and jerking up their tail: they alight sometimes on low 
branches, never on trees, except to escape a very close chase. Of 
a nocturnal disposition, they hide closely by day, seeking their 
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