180 RALULIDAG 
always well hidden from view, and is often difficult of 
approach, owing to the soft nature of the surrounding 
quagmire. | 
The eggs, seven to eleven in number, are of a very pale 
buff, finely spotted and flecked with reddish-brown and grey, 
the specks being much more confined to the larger end than 
in the eggs of the Corn-Crake. Incubation begins about the 
end of April. 
The Water-Rail breeds in most of the swamps of the 
British Isles. It is especially plentiful on the Norfolk 
‘Broads;’ in Ireland, where the bird is not at all well- 
known, it is quite a common breeding-species. 
Geographical distribution. — Abroad, it nests over a 
large area of the European Continent, including Iceland 
and the north of Norway. It occasionally wanders with- 
in the Arctic Circle, a specimen having been obtained 
as far north as Jan Mayen, on October 15th, 1882 (Saunders). 
It also breeds in Western and Central Asia, in North Africa, 
and when on migration in winter, it travels as far as Egypt 
and Abyssinia. 
DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTERS. 
PLUMAGE.’ Adult male nuptial—Top of head, back of 
neck, back, and wings, olive-brown with dark streaks; 
primaries, mouse-brown ; cheeks, front and sides of neck, 
and breast, dull slate-grey ; chin, hght greyish; flanks, 
blackish, barred transversely with white; this barring is 
more noticeable than the brown and buff stripes on the 
flanks of the Corn-Crake; abdomen and under tail-coverts, 
hght buff ; tail, dusky-brown. 
Adult female nuptial.—Similar to the male plumage but 
duller in colour; sometimes shows white bars on the wings. 
Adult winter, male and female.—Resembles the nuptial 
plumages, but browner in shade, and the flanks and thighs 
are washed with fulvous-brown ; throat, nearly white. 
Immature, male and female.—The back and wings have 
' Note.—Messrs. Williams and Son, of Dublin, record a specimen 
shot near the city of Dublin on November 13th, 1902, which was entirely 
black except the barred feathers on the sides and the under tail-coverts, 
which were dull white, beak and feet black, eyes, dark brown. Messrs. 
Williams and Son state that they have seen white and cream-coloured 
varieties, but the above is the first instance of melanism met with 
during thirty years’ experience (‘ Zoologist,’ 1902, p. 467). 
