CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 1 65 



and although the bird may be close to the listener 

 yet it seems quite impossible to decide from which 

 quarter the sounds proceed, almost every series of 

 crakes appearing to come from a different direction." 

 I agree in the main with the foregoing, but am 

 rather of opinion that the difficulty of locating the 

 exact spot whence the crake proceeds is due less 

 to ventriloquism than to the constant shifting of the 

 bird's position when running rapidly through the 

 grass, and either replying to other birds or calling 

 to its mate on the nest. This species, like all the 

 Rails in fact, skulks in cover, and is very trying to 

 any setter because it is impossible almost to really 

 fix it satisfactorily. Its flight is lumbering and 

 slow, legs dangling behind it ; and when it gets up 

 after shooting such a bird as a Partridge it is very 

 apt to be missed. One of the specimens in the 

 case 1 shot in Wales or in Devonshire, the other 

 was given to me by Mr. Hine. 



Howard Saunders says, " the principal winter- 

 quarters of this species is Africa"; apart from this, 

 however, its distribution abroad is very wide 

 indeed. 



The Water-Rail. 



This species cannot, I think, be looked upon as 

 rare, but owing to its skulking habits in marsh-lands 

 where ditches, small ponds, sedges, or slow running 

 streams exist, it is not nearly so often seen as it 

 otherwise mieht be. 



