oe 
WATER-RAIL. 553 
winters in South China, Burma, Eastern and Southern India, and Ceylon. 
This eastern form is on an average slightly larger than the western race ; 
the slate-grey on the underparts is always more or less suffused with 
brown, the dark brown lores extend below and behind the eye, and the 
under tail-coverts are more barred with black; but it must be admitted 
that no one of these characters is always constant. 
The Water-Rail is almost as exclusively a reed-bird as the Bittern or the 
Great Reed-Warbler. The one great object of its life appears to be to 
conceal itself. It threads its way through reed and sedge, only occasionally 
venturing to swim across a narrow piece of open water, and never exposing 
itself on the muddy margin of the marsh, or venturing out to feed on the 
grass of the neighbouring meadows, until its movements are concealed by 
the shadows of evening. When alarmed, it is very reluctant to seek safety 
in flight; but runs through the grass with the celerity of a mouse, twisting 
and twining amongst the tufts of herbage like a Grasshopper Warbler. It 
is as unsociable as it is timid; two pairs are seldom seen near each other, 
and even the male and female are rarely observed together. Itis said that 
even on migration it does not fly in flocks as most birds do. It is difficult 
to account for the extreme shyness of this species and its congeners, so 
different from the comparative tameness of the Waterhen or the Coot. 
Possibly the Rails have acquired their timidity and caution in consequence 
of having endured many generations of persecution from Hawks and 
Harriers, as the Egyptians have acquired their cowardice from generations 
of oppression at the hands of the brutal Turkish officials ; whilst the 
Waterhens and the Coots, like the Arabs, have pluckily fought their way 
to the respect of their more powerful adversaries. In spite of its caution 
the Water-Rail seems to be decreasing in numbers. The drainage of the 
fens where it lives is no doubt one of the chief causes ; but another may be 
found in the difficulties which it has to encounter in winter. The birds 
_ which do not migrate no doubt suffer much in severe seasons, and many 
perish both from hard frosts and the guns of sportsmen ; whilst the perils 
of a long journey to a distant clime are unusually great to a bird of such 
timid and solitary habits. 
Naumann states that the Water-Rail has been known to perch for a 
moment or two in a thick willow tree. He describes its note, which is 
only heard as the bird is flying round in the evening preparing to migrate, 
as a clear, shrill, but melodious kreek. In the pairing-season the call-note 
is a liquid wit, not unlike that of the Nuthatch, but is only heard after 
dusk. 
The Water-Rail feeds upon all kinds of insects, worms, small shell-fish, 
and gnats that are found in the swamps, and occasionally varies its diet 
with the tender shoots of aquatic plants or the seeds of reeds and sedge. 
The Water-Rail is a somewhat early breeder, and eggs have been found 
