RALLID.B. 5 I 5 







■:Z5??-' ^§1 ->5 -^ 7 



THE WATER-RAIL. 



Rallus aquaticus, Linnceus. 



The Water-Rail may be considered a resident in most of the 

 marshy districts of England ; but there is evidence that a consider- 

 able number of the birds which have been bred in this country 

 move southward in autumn, their place being taken by emigrants 

 from the north. In the vicinity of the Norfolk ' Broads ' it is some- 

 what abundant, notwithstanding a large and regrettable traffic in its 

 eggs. In Scotland it is found, chiefly during the cold season, in 

 suitable localities on the mainland and also on the outlying islands ; 

 it even passes the winter in the Shetlands, where Saxby noticed that, 

 when the frost set in, it would visit enclosed places, such as corn- 

 yards, though he never discovered any grain in the stomachs of the 

 specimens obtained. In Ireland the Water- Rail is resident, though 

 more frequently remarked in winter, when the herbage, vrhich at 

 other times conceals it, is scanty. 



This species is only recorded as an autumn-visitor to the Faeroes, 

 but a few remain all the year in Iceland ; and on October 15th 1SS2 

 an example was obtained as far north as the island of Jan ^Mayen. 

 In Norway it has been found up to Ranenfjord (close to the Arctic 

 circle), and near Bergen it is to some extent stationary ; but in 

 Sweden, except the south-west, it is only a summer-visitor, and it is 

 rare in the Baltic Provinces of Russia, though observed as far north 

 as St. Petersburg. In Northern Germany, Denmark and even 



