RALLID &. 445 
This at once shows the great difference in the 
breadth of the flat portion of the breast-bone, in 
proportion to the size of the three birds, there being 
only half an ounce difference in the weight, and that 
in favour of the Water Rail, and one inch and a half 
difference in the whole length,—also in favom ol 
this bird,—while the breadth of the breast-bone is 
four lines and a half less than that of the Snipe, and 
four lines less than that of the Fieldfare. 
The food of the Water Rail consists of worms, 
snails, slugs, aquatic insects and the smallest frogs. 
Dr. Saxby says he found in the stomach of one the 
fibres of plants, small stones and the mandibles of 
some beetles. Meyer says that he kept one in con- 
finement for some time, but it never became very 
tame: it was fed upon bread and milk and chopped 
raw meat, and occasionally worms. 
The nest is usually placed in wet situations 
amongst thick rushes and rank herbage, and some- 
times in willow-beds: it is made of sedge and coarse 
grass, but is generally carefully hidden and difficult 
to find. 
The Water Rail differs from the rest of the 
British Rallide in the shape of its beak, which is 
long, narrow and slightly curved downwards: it is 
red, darker on the upper than the lower mandible; 
irides hazel; the feathers of the head, neck, back, 
scapulars, rump and tail-coverts black in the centres, 
broadly margined with olive-brown; wing-coverts 
2 Q 
