WATER-RAIL. 
RBILCOCK. BROOK-RUNNER. RUNNER. 
Rallus aquaticus, PENNANT. Monracu, 
RAL Sa voice eicsnt Aquaticus—Aquatic—belonging to water. 
THE Water-Rail is, in Europe, found in Germany, France, 
Holland, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and Malta, Iceland and 
the Ferroe Islands, Norway and Sweden, though but rarely. 
It has been noticed also in Asia, in Asia Minor and the 
region of the Caucasus; and, Bewick says, migrates into 
Africa in winter. 
It is not a plentiful species, except in the Fen counties, 
but yet can by no means be called rare in suitable situations 
in any part of the kingdom. 
This Rail frequents the sides of rivers, streams, water- 
courses, pools, ditches, and ponds, and any swamps or marshy 
places in their vicinity, where the strong vegetation gives it 
shelter. 
In Cambridgeshire, the Rev. Leonard Jenyns relates that 
it occasionally is met with near Bottisham, as it no doubt 
is in many other parts in that district. In Norfolk it is 
abundant; it breeds in several parts of the county, and remains 
throughout the year. 
In Yorkshire, it is more or less commonly met with in 
the neighbourhood of York, Burlington, Sheffield, Leeds, 
Doncaster, Barnsley, Hebden Bridge, and Halifax, near which 
place, namely, at Saltershebble, a young bird was shot. I 
have seen them at Wansford, in the parish of Nafferton; and 
in Berkshire, near East Garston. One was shot in the 
neighbourhood of Blaydon Burn, in the county of Durham, 
