26 RALLID.E. 



feeding it with bits of raw meat. In a day or two it became 

 perfectly tame, and would eat out of his hand. He kept it 

 till his return to England, and left it at Portsmouth in the 

 ship in charge of his servant, intending, at a future time, to 

 give the bird its liberty in the marshes there ; but, in conse- 

 quence of neglect from the servant, the bird died. 



The food of this species is worms, snails, slugs, with some 

 vegetables. Dr. Fleming mentions having seen the stomach 

 of one that was filled exclusively with the young snails of 

 Helix lucida. One of these birds, which Mr. Selby kept for 

 some time, was fed entirely with earth-worms, upon which it 

 continued to thrive, till an accident put an end to its life. 

 It refused bread and the larger kinds of grain. In confine- 

 ment this bird is observed to jerk its tail up while walking, 

 like the Common Moor-hen ; and I have heard of one that had 

 so far conquered its timidity as to have become pugnacious. 



Mr. Paget says the Water Rail is common in the marshes 

 of Norfolk ; and Montagu observes, that " the nest is rarely 

 found ; it is made of sedge and coarse grass, amongst the 

 thickest aquatic plants ; sometimes in willow beds. In such 

 a situation Ave found one with six eggs, of a spotless white, 

 and very smooth, rather larger than those of a Blackbird ; 

 the shape a short oval, with both ends nearly alike." I have 

 found the eggs of the Water Rail very difficult to obtain, 

 and never possessed but two, one from Norfolk, and one from 

 Cambridgeshire, and never saw more than three or four 

 others ; these were all very much alike, of a cream-coloured 

 white, with small specks of ash-grey and reddish brown ; the 

 length of the tgg one inch four lines, by one inch in breadth. 

 The Q^^ is very correctly figured by ]\Ir. Hewitson in his work. 



M. Nilsson says the Water Rail is rare in Sweden ; but 

 it annually visits also Norway, the Faroe Islands, and Ice- 

 land. In these countries, of course, it is only a summer 

 visiter, as in the winter all the usual places of resort for food 



