138 BIRDS OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 



Tiie water rail is readily kept ia continement where it is 

 very accommodating in regard to its appetite, whicli it will 

 appease with anything that is given to it. 



It is reckoned good eating by connoisseurs, and perhaps 

 it is ; but if a cat eats a portion of one she will often be 

 violently sick. 



As the.se birds frequent the banks of streams and 

 mar.she.s, they suffer a gooil deal when their haunts are 

 frozen over, and then approach human habitations, evincing 

 great fearlessness, tliough at other times they are very 

 shy, and not often seen except by those who make it their 

 business to look for thein. When surprised, they rarely 

 attempt to escape by flight, but either dive, or run away 

 swiftly through the closest herbage. 



White specimens have now and then been met with, and 

 different individuals vary considerably in appearance 

 among themselves. 



The young have bars of pale brown on the throat and 

 breast, and are ])aler in colour than their parents. 



A pair of these birds have been known to breed success- 

 fully in a suitable aviary, and as they are very graceful 

 in their movement.s, nodding the head and flirting the tail 

 at every step tliey take, they are very attractive inmates 

 of such a place. 



It is not unusual for a pair or two voluntaril}' to take up 

 their abode on a piece of ornamental water. 



Spotted Cr.\ke. — This bird, in genenxl appearance, is 

 not unlike the last, but its colouring is much more sombre. 

 The bill is greyish yellow ; the upper parts of the body are 

 dark grey, with dark centres to the feathers, and white 

 edges to the wing coverts and secondaries, which are also 

 crossed by several wavy white lines; the under parts are 

 greyish blue, paler on the belly, which is not spotted, 

 except a very little at the sides; the middle of the throat 



