284 
FRANK FORESTERS FIELD SPORTS. 
October, and the Southern States early in November, though 
numbers linger in the warm southern marshes the whole winter. 
“A very worthy gentleman—Mr. Harrison—who lives in 
Kittiwan, near a creek of that name, on the borders of James 
River, informed me, in burning his meadows early in March, 
they generally raise and destroy several of these birds. 
“ That the great body of these Rail winter in countries be¬ 
yond the United States, is rendered highly probable, from their 
being so frequently met with at sea, between our shores and 
the West India Islands. 
“A Captain Douglas informed me, that on his voyage from 
St. Domingo to Philadelphia, and more than a hundred miles 
from the Capes of the Delaware, one night the man at the 
helm was alarmed by a sudden crash on deck, that broke the 
glass in the binnacle, and put out the light. On examining into 
the cause, three Rail were found on deck, two of which were 
killed on the spot, and the other died soon after. 
“ The late Bishop Madison, President of William and Mary 
College, Virginia, assured me that a Mr. Skipwith, for some 
time our Consul in Europe, on his return to the United States, 
when upwards of three hundred miles from the Capes of the 
Chesapeake, several Rail, or Soras, I think five or six, came 
on board, and were caught by the people. Mr. Skipwith being 
well acquainted with the bird, assured him that they were the 
very same with those usually killed on James River. 
“ I have received like assurances from several other gentle¬ 
men, and captains of vessels, who have met with those birds be¬ 
tween the main land and the islands, so as to leave no doubt on 
my mind as to the fact. For why should it be considered in¬ 
credible, that a bird which can both swim and dive well, and at 
pleasure fly with great rapidity, as I have myself frequently wit¬ 
nessed, should be incapable of migrating, like so many others, 
over extensive tracts of land or sea 1 Inhabiting as they do the 
remote regions of Hudson’s Bay, where it is impossible they 
could subsist during the rigor of the winter, they must either 
emigrate from there, or perish ; and as the same places in Penr 
