Plate 205 – Virginian Rail

The “cruelty of destroying so many of these birds” and the loss of freshwater marsh areas has almost eliminated the Virginian Rail (present-day Virginia rail) from Virginia and wherever else in North America. In Charleston, South Carolina, John James Audubon found the Virginia rail on little strings “exposed in the market [City Market], at a very low price.” Since counts of birds have been recorded on Cornell’s e-Bird system, no one has counted more than 28 Virginia rails in South Carolina (see eBird Checklist S20936936).