290 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
ing in confirmation of their capability of protracted flight, that 
some of these birds, when accidentally separated from their 
flock, have supported themselves on wing until they have met 
with vessels several hundred miles from land ; and facts of this 
kind have been announced by persons of well-known respec¬ 
tability. 
“ During the autumnal months, a goodly number of Soras 
are found in the rice fields and fresh water marshes of the 
Carolinas. Sometimes, also, they have been shot in salt water 
marshes, in spring, while on their northward migration. At 
this period they are silent until forced to fly. In those States, 
none are seen during summer, very few, it appears, remain in 
any part of the middle districts. My friend, John Bachman, 
however, was shown some eggs of this bird, that had been 
found in the meadows below Philadelphia; and whilst I was 
on a shooting expedition for Woodcock, in company with my 
friend, Edward Harris, Esq., my son shot some young birds, 
scarcely fledged, and shortly afterward, an adult female. John 
Bachman met with a nest on the shores of the Hudson, and I 
saw two in the marshes of Lake Champlain.”— Audubon's 
American Ornithology. 
I have judged it but proper to extend both my quotations on 
the habits, and my own observations on the shooting of this 
bird, to some length, as the first are very peculiar, and the lat¬ 
ter affords a sport, which though I think it for my own part, 
rather a tame amusement, is still followed with much eagerness 
and zest by sportsmen, especially on the Delaware, and on the 
great Western Lakes, where the bird, as we have seen, abounds. 
The United States contain many other species of Rail, most 
of which are at times shot by the sportsman, while in pursuit ot 
one kind or another of aquatic fowl, but none of them are suffi¬ 
ciently abundant, in certain spots or at certain seasons, unless 
it be perhaps the bird commonly known as the Mud-Hen , to be 
made the object of especial pursuit. 
