UPLAND SHOOTING. 
277 
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 fluttering 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 disap¬ 
pear, as 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 up into ditches, by people repairing the 
banks, without any of these sleepers being found, where but a 
few weeks before these birds were innumerable, this theory has 
been abandoned. And here their researches into this mysteri¬ 
ous 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 re¬ 
searches with more success, and one of these being 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 extraordi¬ 
nary kind, that appeared to be neither a Sora nor a Frog, 
but, as he expressed it, something between the two. He car¬ 
ried it to his negroes, and afterwards took it home, where it 
lived three days, and in his own, and in his negroes’ opinion, it 
looked like nothing in this world but a real Sora changed into a 
Frog ! What farther confirms this grand discovery, is the well- 
known circumstance of the Frogs ceasing to halloo as soon as 
the Sora comes in the fall. 
“ This sagacious discovery, however, like many others re¬ 
nowned in history, has found but few supporters, and except his 
own negroes, has not, as far as I can learn, made a single con¬ 
vert to his opinion. 
“ Matters being so circumstanced, and some explanation ne¬ 
cessary, I shall endeavor to throw a little more light on the 
