RAIL 76 
Oo 
p- 82). The Land-Rail needs but a brief description. It looks about 
as big as a Partridge, but on examination its appearance is found to 
be very deceptive, and it will hardly ever weigh more than half as 
much. The plumage above is of a tawny brown, the feathers 
being longitudinally streaked with blackish-brown ; beneath it is 
of a yellowish-white ; but the flanks are of a light chestnut. The 
species is very locally distributed, and in a way for which there is 
at present no accounting. In some dry upland and corn-growing 
districts it is plentiful; in others, of apparently the same character, 
it but rarely occurs ; and the same may be said in regard to low- 
lying marshy meadows, in most of which it is in season always to 
be heard, while in others having a close resemblance to them it is 
never met with. The nest is on the ground, generally in long 
grass, and therein from nine to eleven eggs are commonly laid. 
These are of a cream-colour, spotted and blotched with hght red 
and grey. The young when hatched are thickly clothed with 
black down, as is the case in nearly all species of the Family. 
The WATER-RAIL, locally known by several names as Bilcock 
or Skiddy, is the Lallus aquaticus of Ornithology, and seems to be 
less abundant than the 
preceding, though that is 
in some measure due to 
its frequenting places into 
which from their swampy 
nature men do not often 
intrude. Having a general 
resemblance to the Land-Rail,! it can be in a moment distinguished 
by its partly red and much longer bill, and the darker coloration of 
its plumage—the upper parts being of an olive-brown with black 
streaks, the breast and belly of a sooty-grey, and the flanks dull 
black barred with white. Its geographical distribution is very wide, 
extending from Iceland (where it is said to preserve its existence 
during winter by resorting to the hot springs) to China ; and though 
it inhabits Northern India, Lower Egypt and Barbary, it seems not 
to pass beyond the tropical line. It never affects upland districts 
as does the Land-Rail, but always haunts wet marshes or the close 
vicinity of water. Its love-note is a loud and harsh ery, not con- 
tinually repeated as is that of the Land-Rail, but uttered at 
considerable intervals and so suddenly as to have been termed 
“explosive.” Besides this, which is peculiar to the cock-bird, it 
has a croaking call that is froglike. The eggs resemble those of 
the preceding, but are more brightly and delicately tinted. 
Rauius. (After Swainson.) 
1 Formerly it seems to have been a popular belief in England that the 
Land-Rail in autumn transformed itself into a Water-Rail, resuming its own 
character in spring. I have met with several persons of general intelligence 
who had serious doubts on the subject. 
