WATER-EAIL. 407 



that they produced the cry in question. I think that 

 the male bird only was thus noisy ; but from the long 

 herbage and reeds from which they only emerged at 

 intervals, am not certain on this point; the nest con- 

 tained seven eggs." I have never been fortunate 

 enough, in like manner, to observe this bird when 

 uttermg its note, although, hidden in a reed-bush, I 

 have witnessed their stealthy movements close at hand ; 

 or, through a good glass, have watched the actions of 

 a httle family group disporting themselves all uncon- 

 scious of a looker on; but the cry with which I am familiar 

 as that of the water-rail, and which has been pointed 

 out to me as such by the marshmen at Surlingham 

 and other places, is alike remarkable for its power and 

 character, and when heard in the stillness of a summer's 

 night is scarcely less startling on those lonesome waters 

 than was once the boom of the bittern. On the 17th 

 of July, 1869, between twelve and one in the morning, 

 I listened to the cry of this bird at intervals for more 

 than an hour on Surhngham Broad, and with a thick 

 white fog enveloping the reed-beds and marshes, the 

 sound struck me as far more resonant or explosive than 

 I had ever noticed before. 



The departure of a portion, at least, of our home-bred 

 birds takes place probably about the same time that mi- 

 gratory flights from more northern localities'^ ai-rive on 

 our coast, in autumn. Judging from my own experience 

 and notes of such occurrences, this southward migra- 

 tion varies somewhat as to date in different seasons. 

 On two or three occasions, when snipe-shooting at 

 Surlingham, I have found these rails scattered all 

 over the drier marshes, surrounding the broad, and 

 either threading their way between the tussocks of 



* In Iceland, according to Faber (Prodromus der Islandischen 

 Ornithologie, p. 32), the water- rail is a resident bird, leading a dreary- 

 life in winter, near the hot springs in which that island abounds. 



