WATER RAIL — MOOR-HEN. 139 



a resident, I am only aware of one instance of the nest of this 

 species having- been actually discovered in the county. The 

 record of this is contained in a note in the Zoologist, dated 

 September nth, 1863, by Mr. C. Stubbs, of Henley, who 

 writes, 'I this year found the nest of the Water Rail, with 

 egg-s; it was built amongst the sedge and composed of the 

 dead leaves of the sedge ^ (p. 8681). In 1879, however, 

 I examined a young bird in black down, one of a brood 

 captured in the Cherwell below Banbury, which was believed 

 to be of this species. In summer indeed the Water Rail is 

 seldom seen, but, from the notes of its occurrence which 

 I have by me, it can hardly be considered as otherwise than 

 a resident, and the Rev. A. Matthews informs me he con- 

 sidered it as such in the neighbourhood of Weston-on-the- 

 Green, where it was very common (m lit.). A considerable 

 number of Water Rails are, however, killed by flying against 

 the telegraph wires, presumably when on migration ; I know 

 of an instance of one being killed by coming in contact with 

 a railway truck in motion. 



Severe weather, when it is frozen out of its usual haunts, is 

 the time when the Water Rail is most often seen, for it is one 

 of the shyest of birds, and, under ordinary conditions, extremely 

 difficult to flush. 



The Water Rail varies considerably in size ; I have noticed 

 as much as two inches difference in the total length of adult 

 specimens, a corresponding variation being observed in the 

 size of certain bones, those of the sternum for instance. 

 [Zoologist, 1886, p. 338.) 



THE MOOR-HEN. ■ / 



Gallin ula chloro^) us. 



The Moor-hen is a common resident, found along all our 



streams, and on the larger ponds, a preference being naturally 



shown, at the breeding season, to those that are bordered with 



rushes and a thick growth of aquatic herbage to shelter its nest. 



