THE CAROLINA RAIL. 
189 
They are nowhere properly gregarious, but only accident- 
ally associate, where their food happens to be abundant. 
For this purpose they are perpetually nibbling and boring 
the black marshy soil, from which they sometimes seem to 
collect merely the root-fibres which it happens to contain, 
though their usual and more substantial fare consists of 
worms, leeches, and some long-legged aquatic insects; the 
Snipe of Europe also seizes upon the smaller species of 
Scarabceus. Their food, no doubt, is mixed with the black 
and slimy earth they raise while boring for roots and worms, 
and which, in place of gravel, or other ' hard substances, 
appears to be the usual succedaneum they employ to assist 
their digestion and distend the stomach. 
THE CAROLINA RAIL. ( Rallus Carolinus.') 
The Soree, or Common Rail of America, which assemble 
in such numbers on the reedy shores of the larger rivers, in 
the Middle and adjoining warmer states, at the approach 
of autumn, and which afford such abundant employ to the 
sportsman, at that season, like most of the tribe to which it 
belongs, is a bird of passage, wintering generally south of 
the limits of the Union. 
The^ begin to make their appearance, in the marshes of 
