in 1793, I have held the destructive system in this country which has ruined the Continent, endangered the independence of Great Britain, obstinately pursued against the remonstrances of wisdom, and the warnings of successive discomfiture, is too fervently avowed in the course of these letters, and is too hostile to Mr. Scott's political attachments and connexions, for the possibility of its being eligible for him to become their editor. I wish Mr. Constable to publish two volumes of the said letters annually, not classing them to separate correspondents, but suffering them to succeed each other in the order of time, and as he finds them in the volumes.

"To my hereafter mentioned executors and trustees, I commit the inspection of all my letters from my different correspondents, and of all my papers, those excepted, which are designed for the press; and I trust in their discretion to destroy all useless papers and letters."

With the violent phillipic still tingling in our ears against her favourite Mr. Walter Scott, we leave the lady. The rest of her will is like the will of most other people, and only relates to her estate, her goods, and chattels.

RAIL SHOOTING.

THE natural history of the Rail, or as it is called in Virginia the Sora, and in South Carolina the Coot, is to the most of our sportsmen involved in profound and inexplicable mystery. It comes, they know not whence; and goes, they not where. No one can detect their first moment of arrival; yet all at once the reedy shores and grassy marshes of our large rivers swarm with them, thousands being sometimes found within the space of a few acres. These, when they do venture on wing, seem to fly so feebly, and in such short fluttering flights among the reeds, as to render it highly improbable to most people that they could possibly make their way over an extensive tract of country. Yet, on the first smart frost that occurs, the whole suddenly disappear as if they had never been.

The Rail or Sora belongs to a genus of birds of which about thirty different species are enumerated by naturalists; and those are distributed over almost every region of the habitable parts of the earth. The general character of these is every where the same. They run swiftly, fly slowly, and usually with the legs hanging down; become extremely fat; are fond of concealment ; and wherever it is practicable, prefer running to flying. Most of them are migratory, and abound during the summer in cer

tain countries, the inhabitants of which have very rarely an opportunity of seeing them. Of this last, the Large Rail of Britain is a striking example. This bird, which during the summer months may be heard in almost every grass and clover field in the kingdom, uttering its common note Crek, Grek, from sunset to a late hour in the night, is yet unknown, by sight, to more than ninetenths of the inhabitants. Its well known cry,' says Bewick, ‘is first heard as soon as the grass becomes long enough to shelter it, and continues till the grass is cut; but the bird is seldom seen, for it constantly skulks among the thickest part of the herbage, and runs so nimbly through it, winding and doubling in every direction, that it is difficult to come near it; when hard pushed by the dog it sometimes stops short, and squats down, by which means its too eager pursuer overshoots the spot, and loses the trace. It seldom springs but when driven to extremity, and generally flies with its legs hanging down, but never to a great distance; as soon as it alights it runs off, and before the fowler has reached the spot the bird is at a considerable distance.'* The Water Crake, or Spotted Rail of the same country, which in its plumage approaches nearer to our Rail, is another notable example of the same general habit of the genus. Its common abode,' says the same writer, 'is in low swampy grounds, in which are pools or streamlets overgrown with willow, reeds and rushes, where it lurks and hides itself with great circumspection; it is wild, solitary and shy, and will swim, dive or skulk under any cover, and sometimes suffer itself to be knocked on the head, rather than rise before the sportsman and his dog.' The Water Rail of the same country is equally noted for the like habits. In short, the whole genus possess this strong family character in a very remarkable degree.

On the twenty-second day of February I killed two of these birds in the neighbourhood of Savannah, in Georgia, where they have never been observed during the summer. On the second of the May following I shot another in a watery thicket below Philadelphia, between the rivers Schuylkill and Delaware, in what is usually called the Neck. This last was a male, in full plumage. We are also informed, that they arrive at Hudson's Bay early in June, and again leave that settlement for the south early in autumn. That many of them also remain here to breed is proved by the testimony of persons of credit and intelligence with whom I have conversed, both here and on James river, in Virginia, who have seen their eggs and young. In the extensive meadows that border the Schuylkill and Delaware it was formerly common, before the country was so thickly settled there, to find young Rail in the first mowing time among the grass. Mr. James Bartram, brother to the botanist, a venerable and still active man of eighty

three, and well acquainted with this bird, says, that he has often seen and caught young Rail in his own meadows in the month of June; he has also seen their nest, which he says is usually in a tussock of grass, is formed of a little dry grass, and has four or five eggs of a dirty whitish colour, with brown or blackish spots; the young run off as soon as they break the shell, are then quite black, and run about among the grass like mice. The old ones he has very rarely observed at that time, but the young often. Almost every old settler along these meadows with whom I have conversed has occasionally seen young Rail in mowing time; and all agree in describing them as covered with blackish down. There can, therefore, be no reasonable doubt as to the residence of many of these birds both here and to the northward during the summer. That there can be as little doubt relative to their winter retreat, will appear more particularly in the sequel of the present account.- -During their residence here, in summer, their manners exactly correspond with those of the Water Crake of Britain already quoted; so that, though actually a different species, their particular habits and common places of resort, and eagerness for concealment, are as nearly the same as the nature of the climates will admit.

Early in August, when the reeds along the shores of the Delaware have attained their full growth, the Rail resort to them in great numbers to feed on the seeds of this plant, of which they, as well as the Rice, birds and several others, are immoderately fond. These reeds, which appear to be the zizania panicula effusa of Linnæus, and the zizania clavulosa of Willdenow, grow up from the soft muddy shores of the tide water, which are alternately dry, and covered with four or five feet of water. They rise with an erect, tapering stem to the height of eight or ten feet, being nearly as thick below as a man's wrist, and cover tracts along the river of many acres. The cattle feed on their long green leaves with avidity, and wade in after them as far as they dare safely venture. They grow up so close together that, except at or near high water, a boat can with difficulty make its way through among them. The seeds are produced at the top of the plant, the blossoms or male parts occupying the lower branches of the panicle, and the seeds the higher. These seeds are nearly as long as a common sized pin, somewhat more slender, white, sweet to the taste, and very nutritive, as appears by their effects on the various birds that, at this season, feed on them.

When the reeds are in this state, and even while in blossom, the Rail are found to have taken possession of them in great numbers. These are generally numerous in proportion to the full and promising crop of the former. As you walk along the embankment of the river at this season, you hear them squeaking in every

direction like young puppies; if a stone be thrown among the reeds there is a general outcry, and a reiterated kuk kuk kuk, something like that of a guinea fowl. Any sudden noise, or the discharge of a gun, produces the same effect. In the mean time none are to be seen, unless it be at or near high water; for when the tide is low they universally secret themselves among the interstices of the reeds, and you may walk past and even over them, where there are hundreds, without seeing a single individual. On their first arrival they are generally lean, and unfit for the table; but as the reeds ripen they rapidily fatten, and from the twentieth of September to the middle of October are excellent, and eagerly sought after. The usual method of shooting them, in this quarter of the country, is as follows. The sportsman furnishes himself with a light batteau, and a stout experienced boatman, with a pole of twelve or fifteen feet long, thickened at the lower end to prevent it from sinking too deep into the mud. About two hours or so before high water they enter the reeds, and each takes his post, the sportsman standing in the bow ready for action, the boatman on the stern seat pushing her steadily through the reeds. The Rail generally spring singly, as the boat advances, and at a short distance a-head, are instantly shot down, while the boatman, keeping his eye on the spot where the bird fell, directs the boat forward and picks it up as the gunner is loading. It is also the boatman's business to keep a sharp look out, and give the word mark, when a Rail springs on either side without being observed by the sportsman, and to note the exact spot where it falls until he has picked it up; for this once lost sight of, owing to the sameness in the appearance of the reeds, is seldom found again. In this manner the boat moves steadily through and over the reeds, the birds flushing and falling, the gunner loading and firing, while the boatman is pushing and picking up. The sport continues till an hour or two after high water, when the shallowness of the water, and the strength and weight of the floating reeds, as also the backwardness of the game to spring as the tide decreases, oblige them to return. Several boats are sometimes within a short distance of each other, and a perpetual cracking of musketry prevails along the whole reedy shores of the river. In these excursions it is not uncommon for an active and expert marksman to kill ten or twelve dozen in a tide. They are usually shot singly, though I have known five killed at one discharge of a double barrelled piece. These instances how

ever are rare.

The flight of these birds among the reeds is usually low; and, shelter being abundant, is rarely extended to more than fifty or one hundred yards. When winded and uninjured in their legs, they swim and dive with great rapidity, and are seldom seen to

rise again. I have several times, on such occasions, discovered them clinging with their feet to the reeds under the water, and at other times skulking under the floating reeds with their bill just above the surface. Sometimes when wounded they dive, and rising under the gunwale of the boat secret themselves there, moving round as the boat moves, until they have an opportunity of escaping unnoticed. They are feeble and delicate in every thing but the legs, which seem to possess great vigour and energy, and their bodies being so remarkably thin, or compressed as to be less than an inch and a quarter through transversely, they are enabled to pass between the reeds like rats. When seen they are almost constantly jetting up the tail. Yet, though their flight among the reeds seems feeble and fluttering, every sportsman who is acquainted with them here, must have seen them occasionally rising to a considerable height, stretching out their legs behind them, and flying rapidly across the river where it is more than a mile in width.

Such is the mode of rail shooting in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia. In Virginia, particularly along the shores of James river within the tide water, where the Rail or Sora, are in prodigious numbers, they are also shot on the wing, but more usually taken at night, in the following manner. A kind of iron grate is fixed on the top of a stout pole, which is placed like a mast, in a light canoe, and filled with fire. The darker the night the more successful is the sport. The person who manages the canoe is provided with a light paddle ten or twelve feet in length; and about an hour before high water, proceeds through among the reeds which lie broken and floating on the surface. The whole space for a considerable way round the canoe is completely enlightened; the birds stare with astonishment, and as they appear are knocked on the head with the paddle, and thrown into the canoe. In this manner from twenty to eighty dozen have been killed by three negroes in the short space of three hours!

At the same season, or a little earlier, they are very numerous in the lagoons near Detroit, on our northern frontiers, where another species of reed (of which they are equally fond) grows in shallows in great abundance. Gentlemen who have shot them there, and on whose judgment I can rely, assure me, that they differ in nothing from those they have usually killed on the shores of the Delaware and Schuylkill; they are equally fat, and exquisite eating. On the sea coast of New Jersey, where these reeds are not to be found, this bird is altogether unknown; though along the marshes of Maurice river and other tributary streams of the Delaware, and wherever the reeds abound, the Rail are sure to be found also. Most of them leave Pennsylvania before the end of October, and the southern states early in November,