THE CAROLINA BAIL. 
193 
of Kails and their kindred allies ; with faculties for acting 
in the day, timidity alone seems to have rendered them 
almost nocturnal in their actions ; their sole address and 
cunning seems entirely employed in finding out means of 
concealment ; this is particularly the case when wounded ; 
they then swim out and dive with so much caution as sel- 
dom to be seen again above water ) they even cling with 
their feet to the reeds beneath that element, where they 
would sooner endure suffocation than expose themselves 
with any chance of being seen ; they often also skulk, on 
ordinary occasions, under the floating reeds, with nothing 
more than the bill above water. 
At other times, when wounded, they will dive, and rise 
under the gunwale of the sportsman’s boat, and secreting 
themselves there, have the cunning to go round as the ves- 
sel moves, until, given up as lost, they find an opportunity 
of completing their escape. 
According to the observations of Mr. Ord, the females, 
more particularly, are sometimes so affected by fear, or 
some other passion, as to fall into sudden fits, and appear 
stretched out as lifeless, recovering, after a while, the use 
of their faculties, and falling again into syncope, on merely 
presenting the finger in a threatening attitude. 
At such times, and during their obstinate divings, they 
often fall victims, no doubt, to their enemies in the watery 
element, as they are sometimes seized by eels and other 
voracious fish, who lie in wait for them ; so that the very 
