144 RALLID^. 
204. Rallus aquaticus^ Linn. The Water-Rail. 
" This bird is found on passage near Tangier in about the 
same numbers as the Landrail, frequenting the edges of rivers 
and swamps, where they hide up in the sedges.^^ — Favier. 
The Water-Rail is very common in all suitable localities on 
the Spanish side ; and their croaking frog-like call is always 
to be heard in the swampy jungle at Casa Vieja. Being to 
a great extent a migratory bird, it is most common in 
winter; but, owing to the cover being more thin, at that 
season all the Rails and Crakes are easier to obtain. They 
build in rushes or sedges, laying about the 20th of April. 
On the 13th of May we found two nests, from each of which 
Mr. Stark succeeded in snaring one of the old birds ; these 
nests, built entirely of dry sedge and lined with a few bits of 
dry grass, were just raised above the water, and measured 
6 inches in height, depth, and diameter ; the hollow of the 
nest was 4| inches across by 2| deep. Each nest contained 
seven eggs hard sat-on — one lot being of the usual type, the 
other resembling more those of the Spotted Crake, or, rather, 
looking like miniature Waterhen's eggs with larger blotches 
than usual. 
The males are much larger than the females. 
205. Gallindla chloropus, Linn. The Waterhen or 
Moorhen. 
Moorish. Zelga-kahal {Favier). 
The Moorhen, according to Favier, is " resident in the 
vicinity of Tangier, being met with in abundance; many, 
however, are migratory." 
It is needless to say much about a bird so well known as 
our common English Waterhen. It is not so common in 
Andalucia as the Spotted Crake [Porzana maruetta) ; but I 
was unable to detect any migratory habits on the Spanish 
side of the Straits, where it is tolerably plentiful and gene- 
rally distributed in all suitable localities, often being seen 
about the gardens at the edge of the small stream at Algeciraz 
and at Vejer, seeming, as in England, to be fond of living in 
