NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 117 



Order vii., GRALLAE. • Fam. vl., RALLIDAE. 



Ohs. Wcater Rail, Rallus aquaticus, Linnaeus. — Mr A. G. 

 More includes it in sub-province 35, but gives no authority. 

 He says : " Throughout the mainland : and Messrs Baikie 

 and Heddle describe it as found in Orkney all the year." 

 There is little doubt that these notes are correct, but as I cannot 

 verify them from my own experience, I prefer to enter this species 

 under this heading. It may be added that all whom I have 

 questioned, or corresponded with, regarding it, say that Water Rails 

 are often shot in autumn and winter; but none have instanced 

 the occurrence of its breeding. 



LAND RAIL. 



CREX PRATENSIS, Bechstein. 



Common in all cultivated parts. Wherever a small patch of 

 corn or hay is growTi a pair at least are sure to be found during 

 the season, arriving generally in the beginning of June. On 

 several occasions I have found the Corncrake far from cultivation, 

 in the middle of a barren moor, but this is of course the exception 

 to the rule. It is amusing to see with what eagerness and rapidity, 

 and wdtli what total want of suspicion, the Corncrake will approach 

 to the notes of a supposed rival. I have called them, both with 

 and without the aid of the usual Corncrake call, and it seemed to 

 me that in Sutherland, where small patches of corn hereditarily 

 belong, say, to one pair of birds, they hurried with even 

 greater rapidity to the call than elsewhere. 



WATER-HEN. 



GALLINULA CHLOROPUS {Linnaeus). 



Common as this species is generally throughout Great Britain, 

 it cannot be called abundant in most parts of Sutherland, and is 

 certainly rare in all the wilder portions. In Assynt, nearly every 

 loch and burn of which district are familiar to me, I only know of 

 one locality where a single pair of birds breed every year. Why 

 it does not increase in numbers, any more than do the Partridges 

 at Inchnadamph, before alluded to, I cannot tell. Perhaps, as in 

 their case, the severe winters destroy the young before they reach 

 maturity. Mr J. Crawford speaks of their being present in one 



