178 RALLIDA 
readily distinguished from the Corn-Crake by its much 
longer beak and darker plumage. Unlike the latter, it is 
resident to a considerable extent, and indeed, is generally 
observed in autumn and winter more often than in the 
breeding-season. It is not improbable that numbers of 
our home-bred birds move southward in autumn, while 
migrants from higher latitudes make their appearance and 
remain with us throughout the winter. That this species 
is migratory in its habits is evident from the fact that num- 
bers have been taken at remote lighthouses and lightships 
(Barrington). 
Fic. 22.—WATHR-RAIL. 
The Water-Rail is a much more plentiful British species 
than is popularly supposed, but it is often overlooked owing 
to its habits of skulking among thick aquatic vegetation on 
swampy and even shaky bog-land, which the most ardent 
snipe-shooter will hesitate before traversing, and also 
because of its strong disinclination to take wing when 
hunted. Ihave frequently shot it in frosty weather when 
it is driven to resort to more exposed situations, such as dry 
ditches, rough pasture-land, and along the margins of running 
streams. In hard weather I have seen a Water-Rail outwit a 
Cocker-spaniel which was on its track, by running along the 
