82 The Birds of Pembrokeshire, 
shot a Black Grouse in the county, and only a few and limited 
localities in it are suited to the bird. The Black Grouse has 
disappeared, apparently, from several districts in South Wales, 
where it was once common. Its former abundance is supposed 
to be attested by the number of inns scattered about, bearing 
the sign of the “‘ Black Cock.” This may either witness to the 
presence of the bird, or only to its heraldic representative, as 
the Black Cock is the old crest of the Mathew family, at one 
time owners of large estates in various parts of South Wales, 
just as numerous inns standing on what was once their property, 
still bear the sign of the ‘‘Black Lion,” from the three rampant 
black lions that are on their shield. In the summer of 1878, 
Mr. Edward Laws, of Tenby, and Professor Rolleston, of 
Oxford, discovered bones of the Black Grouse in the Longbury 
Bank Cave, near Tenby. 
WATER-RAIL, Rallus aqguaticus—Resident. We had numerous 
Water-Rails at Stone Hall, and often saw them feeding on the 
lawn in company with Moor-hens. In the dusk, when they were 
running on the garden paths, we sometimes took them for rats. 
We used to see plenty of them by the Cleddy when fishing, and 
in the winter sometimes flushed them from little ditches bor- 
dered by brambles and furze, when we were after the Snipe. 
We do not think they were more numerous in winter than at 
any other season, although some people might imagine them to 
be so because they are then more often seen, as much of the 
cover they can skulk in has then died down. Unless the spots 
frequented by the Rails are actually visited with a good dog 
accustomed to hunt them, they might be altogether undetected 
and considered rare, although in point of fact quite numerous, 
and that close at hand. In many parts of the country, where to 
our knowledge it is a common resident, the Water-Rail, for the 
above reason, is regarded as quite a rare bird, and we have once 
or twice had one sent to us to be named. A Water-Rail was 
seen on the Smalls Rock, by the Lighthouse, October rsth, 
1880; others on November 6th, 1883 (‘“‘ Migration Reports”). 
