42 VIRGINIAN RAIL.
stances. Their movements can be easily traced for fifty yards or so during
nights of brilliant moonshine, when you see them passing with a constant
beat of the wings, in the manner of a Green-winged Teal. As soon
as they arrive at their destination, they may be heard emitting their cries
about sunset, occasionally through the night, and again with increased
vigour at the dawn of day, as if expressing their impatience for the arrival
of their companions. The love-notes of this species have some resemblance
to those of the Clapper Rail, but now and then are changed
for others something like crek, crek, creek, or creek, creek, creek. Being
expert ventriloquists, like their congeners, they sometimes seem to be far
off, when in fact they are within a few yards of you. One morning I had
the good fortune to witness their amatory gestures, which I will here try
to describe, that you may in some degree participate in the amusement
which the scene afforded me.
The sun had scarcely begun to send his horizontal rays over the lake,
on the margin of which I stood, revolving in my mind the many enjoyments
which the Author of nature has benignantly accorded to his creatures.
The air was clear and serene, and the waters spread before me
without a ruffle on their surface. The notes of the Rail came loudly on
my ear, and on moving towards the spot whence they proceeded, I observed
the bird exhibiting the full ardour of his passion. Now with open
wings raised over its body, it ran around its beloved, opening and flirting
its tail with singular speed. Each time it passed before her, it would pause
for a moment, raise itself to the full stretch of its body and legs, and bow
to her with all the grace of a well-bred suitor of our own species. The female
also bowed in recognition, and at last, as the male came nearer and
nearer in his circuits, yielded to his wishes, on which the pair flew off in
the manner of house-pigeons, sailing and balancing their bodies on open
wings until out of sight. During this exhibition, the male emitted a mellow
note, resembling the syllables cuckoe, cuckoe, to which the female responded
with the kind of lisping sound uttered by young birds of the
species when newly hatched.
Excepting our Little Partridge, I know no bird so swift of foot as
the Virginian Rail. In fact, I doubt if it would be an easy matter for an
active man to outstrip one of them on plain ground; and to trust to one's
speed for raising one among the thick herbage to which they usually
resort, would certainly prove fallacious. There they run to a short distance,
then tack about, and again scud away in a lateral direction, so as
VIRGINIAN RAIL. 43
to elude the best dog, or if likely to be overtaken, rise on wing, fly with
dangling legs eight or ten yards, drop among the weeds, and run off as
swiftly as before. Notwithstanding all this, I managed to secure a good
number of them by means of a partridge net, setting the wings of that
apparatus at very obtuse angles, and calling them by imitating the lisping
notes of the female from some distance beyond the bag of the net.
Now and then I found them too cunning for me, as, on discovering that
the wings of the net were in their way, they would get over it in the
same manner as that in which a sailor mounts the shrouds of a ship. Our
Common Coot uses the same artifice, as I shall elsewhere describe.
The nest of the Virginian Rail is not easily found after incubation
has commenced, for then the male, contrary to the habits of most birds,
becomes comparatively silent, and the female quite mute. At such times
I have once or twice almost trodden on one, which I should never have
discovered, had not the poor bird fluttered off in despair, employing all
the artifices used by other species on such occasions. It is placed on a
small elevation formed by the accumulation of the stalks of a large bunch
of grasses, in the centre of which some dry weeds are arranged to the
height of two or three inches, with a very shallow cavity. The eggs are
four or five, seldom more than six or seven, and resemble in colour those
of the Rallus crepitans, although smaller, measuring an inch and a quarter
in length, by eleven-twelfths in breadth, and being rather more rounded.
The young are covered with a jet black down, and run after their mother
as soon as they make their escape from the egg ;—at least I suppose this
to be the case, on account of my having caught some that seemed newly
hatched. The mother leads them with the greatest care among the
long grass of the damp meadows, or the weeds growing near the ponds, to
which they resort at all times, and particularly near the margins of pools
or muddy streams, into which they run and disperse on the least appearance
of danger. When no water is near, the little ones squat in silence,
and await the call of their parent, to which all at once answer, when they
quickly collect once more around her.
This species is able to cling to, and climb along the blades of tall
grasses, even under water, when in danger, and is equally able to swim
gracefully to a considerable distance, as to alight on low bushes, in which
situation I have shot a few of them. When amid the broad leaves of
water-lilies, they walk and run on them with as much ease as the Gallinules
; and I would be inclined to assign them an intermediate station