WATER-RAIL. 4.09 
ber, as shown by their being very plentiful in our mar- 
kets or in the hands of our birdstuffers at times during 
that month; and on the 27th of January, 1867, during 
severe weather, a bird of this kind, probably attracted 
by a light, flew into the open door of a house at Caister, 
near Yarmouth, and was captured. In the spring of 
1863 I was shown by the lighthouse keeper, at Hun- 
stanton, a water-rail, which had been found dead at the 
foot of the building during the previous winter; nor 
was this the only instance of the kind he had met 
with in this species. At Beeston, near Cromer, imme- 
diately on the coast, Mr. T. W. Cremer informs me 
they are not uncommon during the winter months; and 
in January, 1868, during frost and snow, Mr. F. Norgate 
found several at Sparham, near Norwich, dropped about 
in the smaller drains, where he scarcely expected to 
find a water-hen. In spite of the migratory nature, 
however, of this bird, some few, as before stated, remain 
with us throughout the year, and brave the sharpest 
winters. I have shot them both on the broads and by 
the sides of our rivers and smaller streams, when the 
ground has been covered with a deep snow, and the 
channel completely frozen over. Why these stragglers 
should remain to incur the dangers and privations of 
such “hard times” is quite inexplicable; but when 
concealment is impossible amongst the sedges, beaten 
down by the frost and choked with snow,* and escape 
* St. John (“Natural History and Sport in Moray’), under 
date of December 3rd, 1847, states that a water-rail flushed by him 
from a ditch when snow was on the ground, alighted again in an 
adjoining field, and immediately endeavoured to make its way back 
to the water from whence it had flown. A large gull perceiving 
the bird struggling through the snow pounced down upon it, 
but the rail flung itself on its back and fought with bill and claws, 
even jumping up at and pulling feathers out of its formidable 
antagonist. This was repeated again and again, as often as the 
gull tried to seize upon it. But at last the gull was driven off 
by St. John, and the plucky little rail reached its haunt in safety. 
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