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Learning Python Web
Penetration Testing

Automate web penetration testing activities using Python

Christian Martorella

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI
Learning Python Web Penetration Testing
Copyright © 2018 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form
or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations
embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented.
However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the
author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to
have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products
mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy
of this information.

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First published: June 2018

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Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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ISBN 978-1-78953-397-2

www.packtpub.com
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 Contributor

About the author

Christian Martorella has been working in the field of information security for the last 18
years and is currently leading the product security team for Skyscanner. Earlier, he was the
principal program manager in the Skype product security team at Microsoft. His current
focus is security engineering and automation. He has contributed to open source security
testing tools such as Wfuzz, theHarvester, and Metagoofil, all included in Kali, the
penetration testing Linux distribution.

Packt is searching for authors like you

If you're interested in becoming an author for Packt, please visit authors.packtpub.com
and apply today. We have worked with thousands of developers and tech professionals,
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 Table of Contents
Preface 1
Chapter 1: Introduction to Web Application Penetration Testing 6
Understanding the web application penetration testing process 6
Typical web application toolkit 9
HTTP Proxy 9
Crawlers and spiders 10
Vulnerability scanners 10
Brute forces/predictable resource locators 10
Specific task tools 11
Testing environment 11
Summary 14
Chapter 2: Interacting with Web Applications 16
HTTP protocol basics 16
What is HTTP and how it works? 16
Anatomy of an HTTP request 19
HTTP headers 20
GET request 21
Interacting with a web app using the requests library 23
Requests library 23
Our first script 24
Setting headers 28
Analyzing HTTP responses 30
HTTP codes 31
Summary 35
Chapter 3: Web Crawling with Scrapy – Mapping the Application 36
Web application mapping 36
Creating our own crawler/spider with Scrapy 38
Starting with Scrapy 38
Making our crawler recursive 43
Scraping interesting stuff 46
Summary 49
Chapter 4: Resources Discovery 50
What is resource discovery? 50
Building our first BruteForcer 51
Analysing the results 56
Adding more information 61
Table of Contents

Entering the hash of the response content 62

Taking screenshots of the findings 64
Summary 68
Chapter 5: Password Testing 69
How password attacks work 69
Password cracking 69
Password policies and account locking 70
Our first password BruteForcer 71
Basic authentication 71
Creating the password cracker 71
Adding support for digest authentication 75
What is digest authentication? 75
Adding digest authentication to our script 76
Form-based authentication 78
Form-based authentication overview 79
Summary 85
Chapter 6: Detecting and Exploiting SQL Injection Vulnerabilities 86
Introduction to SQL injection 86
SQLi versus blind SQLi 87
Detecting SQL injection issues 88
Methods for detecting SQLi 88
Automating the detection 89
Exploiting a SQL injection to extract data 96
What data can we extract with an SQLi? 97
Automating basic extractions 97
Advanced SQLi exploiting 100
Summary 104
Chapter 7: Intercepting HTTP Requests 105
HTTP proxy anatomy 105
What is an HTTP proxy? 105
Why do we need a proxy? 106
Types of HTTP proxy 106
Introduction to mitmproxy 107
Why mitmproxy? 107
Manipulating HTTP requests 110
Inline scripts 111
Automating SQLi in mitmproxy 115
SQLi process 116
Summary 118
Other Books You May Enjoy 120
Index 123

[ ii ]
 Preface
Welcome to learning Python web penetration testing!

In this book, we'll learn the penetration testing process and see how to write our own tools.

You will leverage the simplicity of Python and available libraries to build your own web
application security testing tools. The goal of this book is to show you how you can use
Python to automate most of the web application penetration testing activities.

I hope you now have a complete grip of what's to come, and that you're as excited as I am.

So then, let's get started on this wonderful journey.

Who this book is for

If you are a web developer who wants to step into the web application security testing
world, this book will provide you with the knowledge you need in no time! Familiarity
with Python is essential, but not to an expert level.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Introduction to Web Application Penetration Testing, teaches you about the web
application security process and why it is important to test application security.

Chapter 2, Interacting with Web Applications, explains how to interact with a web
application programmatically using Python and the request libraries.

Chapter 3, Web Crawling with Scrapy – Mapping the Application, explains how to write your
own crawler using Python and the Scrapy library.

Chapter 4, Resources Discovery, teaches you how to write a basic web application
BruteForcer to help us with the resources discovery.

Chapter 5, Password Testing, explains password-quality testing, also known as password

cracking.
Preface

Chapter 6, Detecting and Exploiting SQL Injection Vulnerabilities, talks about detecting and
exploiting SQL injection vulnerabilities.

Chapter 7, Intercepting HTTP Requests, talks about HTTP proxies and also helps you to
create your own proxies based on the mitmproxy tool.

To get the most out of this book

The only prerequisite for this course is to have basic programming or scripting experience,
which will facilitate quick comprehension of the examples.

In terms of environment, you only need to download the virtual machine that contains the
vulnerable target web application and the Python environment with all the libraries
necessary. To run the virtual machine, you will need to install virtual box from https:/​/
www.​virtualbox.​org/​.

Download the example code files

You can download the example code files for this book from your account at
www.packtpub.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit
www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files emailed directly to you.

You can download the code files by following these steps:

1. Log in or register at www.packtpub.com.

2. Select the SUPPORT tab.
3. Click on Code Downloads & Errata.
4. Enter the name of the book in the Search box and follow the onscreen
instructions.

Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the
latest version of:

WinRAR/7-Zip for Windows

Zipeg/iZip/UnRarX for Mac
7-Zip/PeaZip for Linux

[2]
Preface

The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https:/​/​github.​com/
PacktPublishing/​Learning-​Python-​Web-​Penetration-​Testing. In case there's an update
to the code, it will be updated on the existing GitHub repository.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available
at https:/​/​github.​com/​PacktPublishing/​. Check them out!

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this
book. You can download it here: https:/​/​www.​packtpub.​com/​sites/​default/​files/
downloads/​LearningPythonWebPenetrationTesting_​ColorImages.​pdf.

Conventions used
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames,
file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an
example: "The server returns an HTTP response with a 200 OK code, some header, and
the test.html content if it exists on the server."

A block of code is set as follows:

#!/usr/bin/env
import requests
r = requests.get('http://httpbin.org/ip')
print r.url
print 'Status code:'
print '\t[-]' + str(r.status_code) + '\n'

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines
or items are set in bold:
r = requests.get(self.url, auth=(self.username, self.password))
if r.status_code == 200:
hit = "0"

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

python forzaBruta-forms.py -w http://www.scruffybank.com/check_login.php -t
5 -f pass.txt -p "username=admin&password=FUZZ"

[3]
Preface

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see on screen. For
example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example:
"We right-click on the page and we select View Page Source."

Warnings or important notes appear like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Get in touch
Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

General feedback: Email [email protected] and mention the book title in the
subject of your message. If you have questions about any aspect of this book, please email
us at [email protected].

Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes
do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would
report this to us. Please visit www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book,
clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details.

Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the internet, we
would be grateful if you would provide us with the location address or website name.
Please contact us at [email protected] with a link to the material.

If you are interested in becoming an author: If there is a topic that you have expertise in
and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, please visit
authors.packtpub.com.

[4]
Preface

Reviews
Please leave a review. Once you have read and used this book, why not leave a review on
the site that you purchased it from? Potential readers can then see and use your unbiased
opinion to make purchase decisions, we at Packt can understand what you think about our
products, and our authors can see your feedback on their book. Thank you!

For more information about Packt, please visit packtpub.com.

[5]
 1
Introduction to Web Application
Penetration Testing
In this chapter, we will look at the following topics:

Understanding the web application penetration testing process

Typical web application toolkit
Training environment

Let's get started!

Understanding the web application

penetration testing process
In this section, we will understand what web application penetration testing is and the
process behind it. We will start by learning what web application penetration testing is, the
importance of performing these tests, what professional methodologies look like, and we'll
briefly explain why it is important to have skills to use Python to write our own tools.

Penetration testing is a type of security testing that evaluates the security of an application
from the perspective of an attacker. It is an offensive exercise where you have to think like
an attacker and understand the developers as well as the technology involved in order to
unveil all the flaws.
Introduction to Web Application Penetration Testing Chapter 1

The goal is to identify all the flaws and demonstrate how they can be exploited by an
attacker, and what the impact will be on our company. Finally, the report will provide
solutions to fix the issues that have been detected. It's a manual and dynamic test. Manual
means that it heavily depends on the knowledge of the person doing the test, and that is
why learning how to write your own penetration testing tools is important, and will give
you an edge in your career. Dynamic testing is where we test the running application. It is
not a static analysis of the source code. The security test is useful to validate and verify the
effect of the application security controls to us and to identify the lax of these security
controls.

So, why should we perform penetration testing? Nowadays, IT has taken the world by
storm. Most of the company processes and data are handled by computers. This is the
reason why companies need to invest in security testing, in order to validate the
effectiveness of security controls, and many a times the lack of them.

One report by EMC (https:/​/​www.​scmagazine.​com/​study-​it-​leaders-​count-​the-​cost-

of-​breaches-​data-​loss-​and-​downtime/​article/​542793/​) states that the average
report regarding annual financial loss per company is 497,037 USD for down time, 860,273
USD for security breaches, and 585,892 USD for data loss. Plus, all the time, the company
resources are put into incident response and fixing, testing, and deploying the issue:

That is why performing penetration testing will help companies to protect their customer's
data, intellectual property, and services. Penetration testing is a simple methodology
formed by four main sections, which are as follows:

Reconnaissance: In this phase, we'll gather information to identify the

technologies used, the infrastructure supporting the application, software
configuration, load balances, and so on. This phase is also known as
fingerprinting.

[7]
Random documents with unrelated
content Scribd suggests to you:
must ever be of the fiery, fitful kind. It is a wonder that, among all
his paradoxes and peregrinations, he did not pay a visit to the Dead
Sea. That would have been a congenial pilgrimage for Childe Harold;
and, then, for such a drake as he was to swim in its waters! The
exploit of Leander was only repeated by him from Sestus to Abydos.
The other would have been an original feat, worthy of the taste of a
man who preferred drinking out of a skull to the usual mode of
potation out of the ordinary goblets of civilization.
Severe, scornful, passionate, vengeful, as he often was, how do
those stern features relax, and the milder sensibilities rise into
tender exercise, when, as a father in exile, he writes:

“My daughter! with thy name this song begun,

My daughter! with thy name thus much shall end.
I see thee not—I hear thee not—but none
Can be so wrapt in thee; thou art the friend
To whom the shadows of far years extend;
Albeit my brow thou never shouldst behold,
My voice shall with thy future visions blend,
And reach into thy heart—when mine is cold,
A token and a tone, even from thy father’s mould.”

Thus, with a certain style of uniformity everywhere observable,

especially in his characters, there is much variety of thought,
emotion and passion, evidential of great fertility of mind. If he does
reproduce the same hero under different names, and even give
strong indications of his identification with himself, still the wand of
the enchanter invests him with so many brilliant aspects, places him
in so many imposing attitudes, as to produce all the effect of novelty.
His muse less delights in planning incidents and grouping characters,
than in working out, as with the sculptor’s energetic art, single,
stern, striking models of heroic humanity, albeit stained with
dangerous vices. His very genius has been declared to be inspired
with the classic enthusiasm that has produced some of the most
splendid specimens of the chisel; “his heroes stand alone, as upon
marble pedestals, displaying the naked power of passion, or the
wrapped up and reposing energy of grief.” Medora, Gulnare, Lara,
Manfred, Childe Harold, might each furnish an original from which
the sculptor could execute copies, that would stand the proud
impressive symbols of manliness or of loveliness, satisfying even
those intense dreams of beauty which poets and lovers sometimes
indulge in their solitary musings.

“There, too, the goddess loves in stone, and fills

The air around with beauty; we inhale
The ambrosial aspect, which, beheld, instils
Part of its immortality.” Childe Harold.

This poem, indeed, is a perfect gallery of art, whose paintings

and statues are drawn and fashioned from the life, with the skill of a
consummate master and the facility of a powerful creative, divinely
endowed genius. He places his hand on the broad canvas of life, and
behold the figures that rise under his magic pencil! They are, indeed,
too often dark, stern, mysterious and awful, stained with vices, and
pre-doomed, for their guilt, to the pains of a terrible reprobation.
With such characters the genius of Byron had a strange sympathy.
Hence his admiration of that historical passage in the Scriptures, in
which the crime and the doom of Saul is so solemnly set forth at the
tomb of the prophet Samuel, whose sepulchral slumbers were so
rudely disturbed by the intrusion of the anxious and distressed
monarch, now forsaken by his God. Shakspeare, having finished off
one of these dark and repulsive pictures, as in his Macbeth or Lear,
passes to the sketching of more cheerful and even humorous
portraits; but Byron, for the most part, delights to dwell in darkness.
Thus, in this poem, when the curse is imprecated, the time
midnight, the scene the ruined site of the temple of the Furies, the
auditors the ghosts of departed years, the imprecator a spirit fallen
from an unwonted height of glory to the depths of wo. Principals and
accessaries assume the sombre coloring of his imagination, from
which, however, at times, shoots a gleam of beauty, that imparts
loveliness to the whole scene. Milton, with his almost perfect sense
of beauty, and the fitness of things, would never have put such
words as these in the mouth of his Eve:
 “May the grass wither from thy foot! the woods
Deny thee shelter—earth a home—the dust
A grave! the sun his light! and Heaven her God!”
Cain.

It was quite suitable for Byron to talk so in his Cain, but he has
not unsettled the position of the world’s estimate of its first mother,
so firmly established by Milton. He was, at the time, perhaps,
thinking of himself as Cain, and of his own mother as in one of her
imprecating paroxysms. Alas, that he should have gone on in lawless
indulgence, insulting, both in poetry and practice, the sanctity of
domestic, heaven-constituted, earth-blessing ties, until, after an
abortive, ill-directed struggle for poor Greece, he sunk into an early
grave, at 36 aet., the very meridian of life! He was never satisfied
with his earthly lot, not even with the rare gifts of his genius, nor
with the achievements it made. He professed to consider a poet, no
matter what his eminence, as quite a secondary character to a great
statesman or warrior. As he had failed in the first character, he
resolved to try the second, and strike for the liberty he had sung.
But Fame had no place for him in this part of her temple. With the
rest of the tuneful tribe, he descends to the judgment of posterity as
a Poet; with all men of genius above the million, as more deeply
responsible than they to the author of all mercies; with all men
whatever, as a MORAL AND IMMORTAL BEING, accountable at the tribunal
of God.
The mind would fail in any attempt to estimate the immense
influence of his genius and writings upon the youthful mind and
morals of the past generation—an influence to be augmented in a
geometrical ratio in the future. What is written, is written,
constituting a portion of the active influence circulating in the world
—not to be recalled, not to be extinguished, but to move on to the
end of time, and finally to be met by its originator, where all illusions
will vanish, and all truth, justice and purity be vindicated.
OUTWARD BOUND.
———
BY THOMAS BUCHANAN READ.
———
Fare ye well, our native valleys,
And our native hills farewell;
Though we part, your blessed memory
Shall be with us like a spell:—

For with you are souls in silence

Breathing for us hopes and prayers,
Loving eyes that weep in secret
Gazing on the vacant chairs.

Tender hearts made dear unto us

By unnumbered sacred ties,
Bend at eve their tearful vision
To the stars that o’er us rise.

There are children, darling children,

In the April of their years,
In their play they cease and call us,
And their laughter melts to tears.

There are maidens overshadowed

With a transient cloud of May,
There are wives who sit in sorrow
Like a rainy summer day.

There our parents sit dejected

In the darkness of their grief,
Mourning their last hope departed
As the autumn mourns its leaf.

But the prayers of these are with us

Till the winds that fill the sails
Seem to be the breath of blessings
From our native hills and vales.

Then farewell, the breeze is with us,

 And our vessel ploughs the foam;
God, who guides the good ship seaward
Will protect the loved at home.

HE COMES NOT.

Painted by W. Brown and Engraved expressly for Graham's Magazine by W. Holl

 HE COMES NOT.
[WITH AN ENGRAVING.]

———
BY C. SWAIN.
———

Night throws her silver tresses back,

And o’er the mountain-tops afar
She leaves a soft and moonlight track,
More glorious than the day-beams are;
And while she steers her moonlight barque
Along that starry river now,
Each leaf, each flower, each bending bough,
Starts into beauty from the dark;
Each path appears a silver line,
And naught in earth—but all divine.

Oh, never light of moon was shed

Upon a maid’s more timid tread;
And never star of heaven shone
On face more fair to look upon.
Hark! was not that a whisper light?
A step—a movement—yet so slight,
That silence holds its breath in vain
To catch that fleeting sound again.
Well may’st thou start, lone, timid dove,
To-night he comes not to thy love.
 RAIL AND RAIL SHOOTING.
———
BY HENRY WILLIAM HERBERT, AUTHOR OF FRANK FORESTER’S “FIELD
SPORTS,” “FISH AND FISHING,” ETC.
———

THE VIRGINIA RAIL. (Rallus Virginianus.)

THE SORA RAIL. (Rallus Carolinensis.)

With the present month commences the pursuit of this singular

and delicious species of game, and, although as a sport it is not to
be compared with the bolder and more varied interest of shooting
over dogs on the upland, still the great numbers which are killed,
and the rapidity with which shot after shot is discharged in
succession, render Rail-shooting a very favorite pastime, more
especially with the sportsmen of Philadelphia, in the vicinity of which
city this curious little bird is found in the greatest abundance.
Of the rallidæ, or Rail family, there are many varieties in America,
all of them more or less aquatic in their habits, and none of them
being, as the Corncrake, or Land Rail, of Europe, purely terrestrial;
though the little Yellow-Breasted, or New York Rail, Rallus
Noveboracencis, approaches the most nearly to that type, being
frequently killed in upland stubble or fallow fields.
The principal of these species, and those most worthy of notice,
are—the Clapper Rail, or great Salt-Water Rail, variously known as
the Meadow Hen, or Mud Hen; found very extensively along all the
tide morasses, and salt meadows of the Atlantic coast, but more
especially on the shores of Long Island, and in New Jersey, at
Barnegat and Egg Harbor. This, the scientific name of which is Rallus
crepitans, is the largest of the species; it is shot from row boats in
high spring tides, when the water has risen so much as to render it
impossible for the Rails either to escape by running, which they do
at other times with singular fleetness, baffling the best dogs by the
celerity with which they pass between the thick-set stalks of the
reeds and wild oats, constituting their favorite covert, or to lurk
unseen among the dense herbage.
This Rail, like all its race, is a slow and heavy flyer, flapping
awkwardly along with its legs hanging down and a laborious flutter
of the wings. It is, of course, very easily shot, even by a bungler,
and there is little or no sport in the pursuit, though its flesh is tender
and delicate, so that it is pursued on that account with some
eagerness.
Second to the Clapper Rail, in size, and infinitely superior to it in
beauty and excellence of flesh, is the King Rail, Rallus elegans,
which is by far the handsomest of the species. It is commonly known
as the Fresh-Water Meadow Hen, though it is not with us to the
northward a frequent or familiar visitant, the Delaware river being
for the most part its northeastern limit, and very few being killed to
the eastward of that boundary. A few are found, it is true, from time
to time, in New Jersey, and it has occurred on Long Island, and in
the southern part of New York, though rather as an exception than
as a rule.
Next to these come the Virginia Rail, which is represented to the
right hand of the cut at the head of this paper, and the Sora, which
accompanies it.
The Virginia Rail, Rallus Virginianus, notwithstanding its
nomenclature, which would seem to indicate its peculiar local
habitation, is very generally found throughout the United States, and
very far to the northward of the Old Dominion. I have myself killed it
in the State of Maine, as well as in New York, New Jersey, and
Pennsylvania, at the marsh of the Aux Canards river, in Canada East,
and on the head waters of the Lake Huron Rivers. In the great wild
rice marshes of the St. Clair river, the Virginia Rail, like most of the
aquatic birds and waders, is very common. It is rather more upland
in its habits than its companion, the Sora, which delights in the
wettest tide-flowed swamps where the foot of man can scarcely
tread, being frequently killed by the Snipe-shooter in wet inland
meadows, which is rarely or never the case with the Sora.
The Virginia Rail is, however, not unfrequently found in company
with the other on the mud flats of the Delaware, and, with it, is shot
from skiffs propelled by a pole through the reed beds at high water.
The Virginia Rail is a pretty bird, measuring about eight inches in
length. The bill is about an inch long, slightly decurved, red at the
base and black at the extremity; the nostrils linear. The top of the
head is dark-brown, with a few pale yellowish streaks; a blackish
band extends from the base of the bill to the eye, and a large, ash-
colored spot, commencing above the eye posteriorily, occupies the
whole of the cheeks. The throat, breast, and belly, so far as to the
thighs, which partake the same color, are of a rich fulvous red,
deepest on the belly. The upper parts, back of the neck, scapulars,
and rump, are dark blackish-brown, irregularly streaked and dashed
with pale yellowish-olive. The wing-coverts are bright bay, the quills
and tail blackish-brown. The vent black, every feather margined with
white. The legs are red, naked a little way up the tibia. It is a very
rapid runner, but flies heavily. It affords a succulent and highly
flavored dish, and is accordingly very highly prized, though scarcely
equal in this respect to its congener, the Sora, which is regarded by
many persons as the most delicious of all game, though for my own
part I would postpone it to the Canvas-Back, Fuligula valisneria, the
Upland Plover, Totanus Bartramius, and the Pinnated Grouse, or
Prairie Fowl, Tetrao cupido.
The Sora Rail, Rallus Carolinus, which is more especially the
subject of this paper, is somewhat inferior in size to the last species,
and is easily distinguished from it by the small, round head, and
short bill, in which it differs from all the rest of its family. This bill is
scarcely half an inch in length, unusually broad at the base, and
tapering regularly to a bluntly rounded point. At the base and
through nearly the whole length of the lower mandible it is pale
greenish-yellow, horn-colored at the tip. The crown of the head,
nape, and shoulders, are of a uniform pale olive-brown, with a
medial black stripe on the crown. The cheeks, throat, and breast,
pale rufous brown, fading into rufous white on the belly, which is
mottled with broad transverse gray lines. The back, scapulars, wing-
coverts, and rump, are olive-brown, broadly patched with black, and
having many of the feathers margined longitudinally with white, the
quills dark blackish-brown, the tail dark reddish-brown. The lower
parts from the tail posteriorily to the vent transversely banded with
black and white. The legs long and slender, bare a short way up the
tibia, of a pale greenish hue. The iris of the eye is bright chestnut.
The male bird has several black spots on the neck.
This bird is migratory in the United States, passing along the sea-
coast as well as in the interior; a few breed in New Jersey, on the
Raritan, Passaic, and Hackensack rivers; but on the Delaware and its
tributaries, which abound with wild rice, it is exceedingly abundant,
as it is also in the great northwestern lakes and rivers which are all
plentifully supplied with this its favorite food. It is rarely killed in New
York or to the eastward, though a few are found on the flats of the
Hudson. It winters for the most part to the south of the United
States, although a few pass the cold season in the tepid swamps and
morasses of Florida and Louisiana. All this is now ascertained beyond
doubt, but till within a few years all sorts of strange fabulous tales
have been in circulation concerning the habits of this bird; arising
from the circumstance of its very sudden and mysterious arrival and
disappearance on its breeding-grounds, the marshes being one day
literally alive with them, and the next solitary and deserted. Add to
this its difficult, short, and laborious flight, apparently so inadequate
to the performance of migrations thousands of miles in length, and it
will be easy to conceive that the vulgar, the ignorant, and the
prejudiced, should have been unable to comprehend the possibility
of its aërial voyages, and should have endeavored to account for
their disappearance by insisting that they burrow into the mud and
become torpid during the winter, as I have myself heard men
maintain, incredulous and obstinate against conviction. Audubon has
thought it necessary gravely, and at some length, to controvert this
absurd fallacy, and in doing so has recorded the existence of a
planter on the James River, in Virginia, who is well convinced that
the Sora changes in the autumn into a frog, and resumes its wings
and plumage in the spring, thus renewing the absurd old legend of
Gerardus Cambrensis in relation to the tree which bears shell-fish
called barnacles, whence in due season issue barnacle geese.
The Sora Rail arrives in the Northern States in April or May. I saw
one killed myself this spring in a deep tide marsh on the Salem
creek, near Pennsville, in New Jersey, on the 25th of the former
month, which was in pretty good condition. They migrate so far
north as to Hudson’s Bay, where they arrive early in June, and
depart again for the south early in the autumn. They breed in May
and June, making an inartificial nest of dry grass, usually in a
tussock in the marsh, and laying four or five eggs of dirty white, with
brown or blackish-white spots. The young run as soon as they are
hatched, and skulk about in the grass like young mice, being
covered with black down. The Sora Rail is liable to a curious sort of
epileptic fit, into which it appears to fall in consequence of the
paroxysms of fear or rage to which it is singularly liable.
The following account of the habits and the method of shooting
this bird, from Wilson’s great work on the Birds of America, is so
admirably graphic, truthful, and life-like, that I prefer transcribing it
for my own work on Field Sports, into which I copied it entire as
incomparably superior to any thing I have elsewhere met on the
subject, to recording it myself with, perhaps, inferior vigor.
“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 Willenden, 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 for
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. The 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 feed
on them at this season. 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 discharge
of a gun, produces the same effect. In the meantime, none are to be
seen, unless it be at or near high water—for when the tide is low,
they universally secrete themselves among the insterstices 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 seeds
ripen, they rapidly fatten, and from the 20th 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
in 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 the bird up, while 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 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 backwarkness
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 above 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, however, 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 winged, 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 reeds, with their bills just above the surface; sometimes,
when wounded, they dive, and rising under the gunwale of the boat,
secrete themselves there, moving round as the boat moves, until
they have an opportunity of escaping unnoticed. They are feeble and
delicate in every thing except the legs, which seem to possess great
vigor and energy; and their bodies being so remarkably thin, and
compressed so 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
neighborhood of Philadelphia.
“In Virginia, particularly along the shores of James River, within
the tide-water, where the Rail, or Sora, are found 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 start with astonishment, and, as
they appear, are knocked over the head with a 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 frontier, 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.”
To this I shall only add, that a very light charge of powder and
three-quarters of an oz. of No. 9 shot will be found quite sufficient to
kill this slow flying bird. I have found it an excellent plan to have a
square wooden box, with two compartments, one holding ten lbs. of
shot, with a small tin scoop, containing your charge, and the other
containing a quantum suff. of wadding, placed on the thwarts of the
boat, before you, and to lay your powder flask beside it, by doing
which you will save much time in loading; a great desideratum
where birds rise in such quick succession as these will do at times, a
couple of hundred being some times killed by one gun in a single
tide.
A landing net on a long light pole will be found very convenient
for recovering dead birds. No rules are needed for killing rail, as they
lie so close and fly so slowly that a mere bungler can scarce miss
them, unless he either gets flurried or tumbles overboard. When
dead he is to be roasted, underdone, like the snipe, served on a slice
of crisp buttered toast, with no condiment save a little salt and his
own gravy. If you are wise, gentle reader, you will lay his ghost to
rest with red wine—Burgundy if you can get it, if not, with claret. For
supper he is undeniable, and I confess that, for my own part, I more
appreciate the pleasure of eating, than the sport of slaying him; and
so peace to him for the present, of which he surely will enjoy but
little after the twentieth of September, until the early frosts shall
drive him to his asylums, in the far southern wilds and waters.

THE FINE ARTS.

Twenty-Seventh Annual Exhibition of the Pennsylvania Academy of the
Fine Arts.—Viewed in all its bearings and relations, we believe this to
have been the most important exhibition of this excellent institution.
Not that we think the present by any means the best collection of
paintings we remember to have seen in these same rooms. We
believe it is generally known that for some time past a considerable
business has been done in the way of importing paintings, statues,
etc., for purposes of speculation. Through the exertions of the
individuals engaged in this traffic, scores of foreign pictures have
been scattered over the country. With this business it is not our
purpose to meddle. Undoubtedly these gentlemen possess the right
to invest their money in whatever will yield the largest per centage,
and we are glad to perceive that a fondness for art exists to such an
extent as tempts shrewd speculators and financiers to enter into
operations of this description. But, keeping in view the state of
affairs induced by the exertions of these gentlemen, no surprise will
exist in the mind of any one at the unparalleled interest created in
the public mind by the announcement that the Directors of the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, impelled by a laudable desire to
patronize art and artists, had offered certain “prizes or sums of
money,” to be competed for by artists all over the world. The mere
announcement put public curiosity on the qui vive. Expectation was
on tip-toe. At length, after protracted delay, on the 16th of May last,
the Academy was thrown open to the public.
The two galleries—the south-east and the north-east—those
usually appropriated to the new works, contained one hundred and
eighty pictures, which, with some half dozen scattered through the
old collection, made about one hundred and ninety new pictures, by
modern artists. Of this number some seventy or eighty were foreign
—the majority of these German. How many were submitted for the
“prizes or sums of money” we are not informed.
328 of the catalogue—Death of Abel, etc., by Edward du Jardin, is
probably, so far as subject is involved, the most important work in
the collection. As a whole, we look on these pictures as a failure, as
a dead failure. Parts of the works are well drawn, and carefully, even
laboriously studied, but what could be more absurd than the
habiliments, attitude and expression of the angel in the first of the
three? The Adam in the centre is a regular property figure—one of
those stock studies which embellish the portfolio of every young
artist who has ever been to Europe. The attitude and expression are
such as can be purchased by the franc’s worth from any one of the
scores of models to be found in almost every city in Europe. The Eve
possesses more of the character of a repentant Magdalene than the
“mother of mankind.” The third picture is to our mind the best; but,
taken all together, the works are barely passable—not by any means
what we should have expected from a professor of painting in one of
the first schools in Europe. Religious art requires abilities and
perceptions of the first order—feelings different from any manifested
in this production.
 Of a different order is 56—Rouget de Lisle, a French officer,
singing for the first time the Marsellaise Hymn, (of which he was the
author,) at the house of the Mayor of Strasburg, 1792—Painted by
Godfroi Guffens. Every thing here is fire and enthusiasm—the
enthusiasm that ought to pervade every work of art—which makes
the intelligent spectator feel as the artist felt in its production. We
have heard various and conflicting remarks made upon this work,
and the general feeling among competent judges is that it is the
best of the foreign works. In our opinion it is, perhaps, the best
modern picture in the collection. The grouping, actions, and
expressions of the figures are in admirable keeping with the subject,
and the color is rich, agreeable, and subdued.
Murray’s Defense of Toleration.—P. F. Rothermel. If to the
exquisite qualities of color, composition, etc., Mr. Rothermel would
add (we know he can) expression, he would unquestionably be the
historical painter of America. In a refined, intellectual perception of
the general character of his subject, Mr. R. is unsurpassed, perhaps
unapproached by any painter in the country. His pictures give
evidence of the greatest care and study—no part is slighted—
nothing done with the “that will do” feeling, which dreads labor. The
picture under consideration embraces a great number of figures—in
fact the canvas is literally covered, but not crowded, every inch
giving evidence of intelligence and design. Concerning the work, we
have heard, from the public press as well as from individuals, but
one expression, that of the strongest commendation—in which we
heartily concur.
150, from the Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act IV., Scene 1st., also
by Mr. Rothermel, is conceived in the true feeling of the great poet.
The figures of Bottom, and Titania and the other fairies, are fine
conceptions. Some comparatively unimportant defects in drawing
might be remedied, without injuring the general effect.
Mr. Winner contributes a large work—Peter Healing the Lame Man
at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple. This picture possesses great
merit, and evinces a most commendable ambition. The grouping is
well managed—the expressions of Peter and John are good—the
cripple capital. A stumpy shortness of the figures mars the general
character of this otherwise beautiful production. Mr. Winner paints
drapery well, and perhaps unconsciously loads his figures with it.
This defect is conspicuous in his grand work of “Christ raising the
Daughter of Jairus,” now in our Art Union Gallery. The heads and
extremities of Mr. Winner’s pictures are perfect studies of color and
modeling, and evince a masterly knowledge of anatomy. We should
be rejoiced to see the efforts of our artists liberally sustained, as
they ought to be, in the higher departments of art.
41, The Happy Moment—105, The Recovery—Carl Hubner. These,
no doubt, are popular works—as works of certain classes always will
be. We have heard much said in praise of them. They are beautifully,
exquisitely painted—especially the “Happy Moment,” in which the
color and execution are admirable. But in sentiment, or any of the
ideal qualities of such subjects, they are lamentably deficient. Like
nearly all the German painters, Carl Hubner possesses much greater
executive than imaginative powers—he is more of a mechanic than
an artist. He gratifies the eye at the expense of the mind. Surely
rustic love is suggestive of something more than any thing hinted at
in the “Happy Moment.” “The Recovery” is composed of the usual
conventional material of such subjects—a simpering physician, with
a nice diamond ring on his finger, friends, with the old, upturned
eyes and clasped hands, are mechanically put together—all standing
or sitting evidently on purpose to be painted.
In landscape, the best works in the collection are Nos. 35 and
136, by Diday, a Geneva artist—a Moonlight, No. 46, B. Stange, and
No. 78, a Roman Aqueduct at Alcala, with caravans of muleteers, F.
Bossuet. The two first are grand and imposing representations of
scenery in the High Alps—in color they are deep and rich in tone.
The Moonlight, by Stange, is the best we have ever seen. The
tremulous luminousness of the moonshine is rendered with
matchless truth. The Roman Aqueduct, by Bossuet, is, beyond
question, the finest landscape in the collection. Sunlight, local color,
and texture were never painted with greater truth than in this
splendid production. Light and heat pervade every nook and corner
of the picture, from the dry, dusty foreground, off to the distant
mountains which close the scene. The work furnishes a grand
example of artistic execution and detail. No 52—Lake George—Russel
Smith—is a beautiful piece of open daylight effect, possessing great
truth. A Scene on the North River—Paul Weber—possesses much
merit. The color is fresh and natural, and the sky is the best we have
seen by this artist.
In the Marine department we have works from Schotel, De Groot,
Pleysier, Mozin, and other foreign artists, and from Birch, Bonfield,
and Hamilton, American. Hamilton stands preeminent in this
department—his “Thunder Storm,” and a poetic subject from Rogers’
Columbus, are the best marines in the Academy. All his works in the
present exhibition have been so minutely described in the daily and
weekly papers, and so universally commended, that we deem it
unnecessary to do more than add our unqualified acquiescence in
the favorable judgment thus far expressed concerning them. Not one
of our artists is attracting so much attention at the present moment
as Mr. Hamilton. We have no doubt he is fully able to sustain the
high expectations created by his works within the last two years.
Birch and Bonfield, each, maintain their well-earned and well-
deserved reputations. Of the foreign marines, those of Pleysier and
De Groot are the best—but there is nothing remarkable in either.
A Still Life piece by Gronland, a French artist, is a splendid
example of its class—as is, also, one of a similar character by J. B.
Ord, the best painter of such subjects in the United States.
Want of space prevents our entering into the discussion of the
comparative merits of native and foreign works. We feel no
hesitation, however, in saying that our artists, as a body, have every
reason to congratulate themselves upon the probable results of the
present exhibition.

The Madonna del Velo.—Among the many works of art, which the
unsettled state of the Continent has brought into the London
market, are a collection formerly the property of the Bracca family of
Milan. The gem of the gallery is a remarkably fine and beautifully
finished Madonna del Velo by Raffaelle. This attractive picture
derives its title from the Virgin being represented as lifting a
transparent veil from the face of the sleeping Jesus. She is gazing on
the infant with all the devoted love of a mother, and with all a
Madonna’s reverence beaming from her eyes and depicted in her
countenance and her posture; while the young St. John is standing
by, an attentive and interested spectator of the proceeding. The
colors are very beautiful, and are blended with the highest taste and
judgment. The details of the painting bear the closest examination,
and every new inspection brings to view some unobserved charm,
some previously undetected beauty. The figures are worthy in all
respects of the highest praise, and the landscape forms a delightful
and effective back-ground. To mention one little example of the
singular skill and finish displayed in this beautiful work, the veil
which the Virgin is represented as lifting from the sleeping infant’s
face, is marvelously painted. It is perfectly transparent, and seems
so singularly fine, filmy and light, that it has all the appearance of
what a silken cobweb might be imagined to be. It is a remarkable
specimen of the skill of the great artist even in the most difficult and
delicate matters. Indeed, the whole painting is a “gem of purest ray.”

“La Tempesta”—a new opera, the joint composition of Halevy and

Scribe, has been produced in London, with Sontag as Miranda,
Lablache as Caliban, Coletti as Prospero, and Carlotta Grisi as Ariel.
Whether its original source, the renown of the author of the libretto,
the reputation of the composer, or the combination of artistic talent
engaged, be considered, the opera is a work of unprecedented
magnitude, and naturally excited unusual interest on the part of all
lovers of art. Monsieur Scribe has made legitimate use of
Shakspeare’s “Tempest” in its transmutation into a libretto—
supernatural agency and music are employed, even Caliban sings,
and Ariel, besides being an essentially musical part, heads a band of
sprites and elves “who trip on their toes, with mops and mows.” But
it was necessary, for lyrical purposes, that a greater intensity of
human interest should be added. M. Scribe has found means of
drawing these new points from Shakspeare’s own text. He says in a
letter to the lessee of Her Majesty’s Theatre, “I have done the
utmost to respect the inspirations of your immortal author. All the
musical situations I have created are but suggestions taken from
Shakspeare’s ideas; and as all the honor must accrue to him, I may
be allowed to state that there are but few subjects so well adapted
for musical interpretation.” We hope before long to have this last
work from Halevy transferred to the boards of the American Opera.

A Drama Thirty Centuries Old Revived.—A recent great theatrical

wonder of the hour in Paris, has been the revival of a piece from the
Hindoo theatre, “which was performed for the first time” some three
thousand years ago, in a city which no longer has an existence on
the earth, and written by the sovereign of a country whose very
name has become a matter of dispute. The piece was translated
from the original Sanscrit by Gerald de Nerval, and met unbounded
success. All Paris has been aroused by this curious contemplation of
the ideas and motives of these remote ages, and a whimsical kind of
delight is experienced at finding the human nature of Hindostan of
so many centuries ago, and the human nature of modern Paris, so
exactly alike in their puerility and violence, their audacity and
absurdity, that the play may verily be called a pièce de circonstance.
King Sondraka, the author, seems to have anticipated the existence
of such men as Louis Blanc and Proudhon, of Louis Bonaparte and
Carlier; so true it is, that there is nothing new under the sun, and
that not an idea floats on the tide of human intelligence but what
has been borne thither by the waters of oblivion, where it had been
already flung.

Statue of Calhoun.—The marble statue of the late John C.

Calhoun, executed by Hiram Powers, at Leghorn, for the State of
South Carolina, was lost on the coast of Long Island, in July, by the
wreck of the brig Elizabeth.
 Horace Vernet, the great historical printer, has been to St.
Petersburg, having been requested by the Emperor of Russia to
furnish several battle pieces illustrative of the principal scenes in the
Hungarian campaign.

Drawn by Ch. Bodmer Engd by Rawdon, Wright & Hatch

Dance of the Mandan Indians.

MANDAN INDIANS.
[WITH AN ENGRAVING.]
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