THE WATER-EAIL 



(Rallus aqiiaticus) 



You will sometimes meet with a skulking little bird 

 amongst the secluded marshes whose actions put you much 

 in mind of a Corn-Crake or a Moorhen — this is the Water- 

 Rail. He may justly rank as one of our rarer birds, though 

 apt to be thought much scarcer than he really is, owing to 

 his shy and retiring habits. There are few marshy tracts 

 where the cover is sufficiently dense, and the waters well 

 fringed with reeds and rushes, that do not harbour the Water- 

 Eail during the summer months. In winter he is much more 

 locally distributed, and numbers retire southwards at this 

 season from the more northern swamps, returning when the 

 aquatic vegetation shoots up again and furnishes him with 



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